This excerpt is the emotional climax of Drive In, episode 3 of the Stan Original drama series, Invisible Boys. Charlie (Joseph Zada, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping) has been outed as queer and is starting a tentative relationship with farm boy Matt (Joe Klocek), who is very much in the closet and has a difficult home life on his dad’s farm.

The scene takes place at night in a car outside the drive-in cinema. It’s shot under blue light, conveying the series’ theme of the boys being invisible and having to hide their budding sexuality in rural Geraldton, WA. The scene could be taking place in the 1980s, but it’s actually 2017 and Australia is on the verge of voting in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. While the result signalled broad community acceptance of LGBTQIA+ communities, the survey also unleashed the airing of toxic views about homosexuality, which only encouraged people like Matt to keep their true feelings hidden.

While the 2017 survey is the backdrop to the series, the political takes a backseat to the personal in this intimate scene, sensitively directed by Nicholas Verso and acted with appealing tenderness by Zada and Klocek. Matt’s reluctance to live in the open clues us into his depression and foreshadows the obstacles that may forever keep him isolated from Charlie.