Join us for an exclusive discussion with creatives behind the captivating home-grown Australian Original series THE CLEARING on Disney+, adapted from the novel In the Clearing by J.P. Pomare and loosely inspired by real life cult stories.

A young girl is abducted on a lonely country road as she walks home from school. When the incident is reported on the news, Freya Heywood’s carefully constructed world is thrown upside down. Freya is raising her eight-year-old son Billy in a small town in country Victoria and paranoia soon sets in after she spies a suspicious white van lurking near her remote home.

Meanwhile, an abducted girl is delivered by her captors to a secluded compound near Lake Eildon. Known as Blackmarsh, it is the home of a cult called The Kindred. The little girl is greeted by ten children of varying ages, all dressed alike with their hair dyed blonde, and announced as their new sister Asha. Returning from spiritual sabbatical, the cult’s leader – Adrienne, or ‘Mummy’ to the children – has no idea that one of her trusted ‘Aunties’ has gone rogue and kidnapped a child; the unhinged criminal act threatening to bring the secret cult undone. Thirteen-year-old Amy is charged with ensuring the resistant Asha accepts her new home, family and collective higher purpose in The Kindred.

Starring Teresa Palmer (A Discovery of Witches), Miranda Otto (Portable Door) and Guy Pearce (Mare of Easttown), directed by Jeffrey Walker (The Artful Dodger) and Gracie Otto (Heartbreak High S1&2), and co-created and written by Matt Cameron (Jack Irish) and Elise McCredie (Stateless), THE CLEARING is an emotional and psychological thriller that burrows under the skin and inside the mind, blurring the lines between past and present, reality and nightmare. Produced by Wooden Horse (Mother and Son, Stuff the British Stole, The Cape, Rose Gold) for The Walt Disney Company Australia, THE CLEARING debuted on Disney+ as a Star Original series in May 2023.

Join Wooden Horse Co-Director and Producer of THE CLEARING Jude Troy, series Creators and Writers Matt Cameron and Elise McCredie, and The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand Content Director Deborah Huxley, as they go inside the making of this incredible psychological thriller, featuring a blend of extraordinary senior cast and breakthrough young actors, suspenseful and gripping storylines, and unique Australian surrounds.