Garry Fraser’s Supply & Demand series is set to record its fourth instalment this year after the first three episodes have explored a myriad of social issues ranging from trauma, poverty, and the failures of the state in a compelling crime-driven feud story based in Edinburgh.
The story follows the life of Frank, the son of a crime boss, who has had a troubled upbringing and is dealing with life after serving in the army and a violent turf war that has spilled out following the death of his father.
Told through the perspective of a broken, grieving family living at the sharp end of addiction, violence, and loyalty, the series is rooted in social realism and lived experience.
It also explores how power operates within deprived communities and the personal cost of trying to change a life shaped by it.
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Fraser explained he was inspired to write Supply & Demand, whose first part has racked up more than 800,000 views on YouTube alone since it debuted three years ago, due to a bizarre case where $1bn stolen from Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, was found at an ex-council flat in Pilton, north Edinburgh.
“It was like an obscene amount of money, it was like half a billion pounds or something like that, and it was traced to a flat, and I just thought, ‘oh, that’s really interesting’,” Fraser said.
In 2015, it was revealed that the Pilton flat in question was home to an astonishing 530 firms registered at the address by shell companies, one of which, Fortuna United LP, was the firm with the rights to the billion dollars that disappeared from three of Moldova’s main banks in 2014.
The extraordinary story of how an Edinburgh flat ended up in the middle of a huge international story about a missing billion dollars, which at the time was equivalent to an eighth of Moldova’s entire GDP, was compelling inspiration for Fraser for a crime series and the struggles of power.
“What we’re currently living through right now, the whole Epstein thing and the abuse of power and all that sort of stuff, I thought that’s really interesting and thought it would make a good plot in a movie,” he explained.
“I then started looking at gypsy travelers and the underworld trying to create archetypes and stuff like that as well. It just made it a really interesting canvas to write from.”
Fraser (below) said he wanted to show how social issues that affect Scotland can be interlinked with larger international stories.
He explained how he wanted to show in his series how there is an intersection between the story of Frank, an army veteran who is addicted to drugs, and how the establishment is not only failing him but has actively worked in ways on a geopolitical level that have contributed to his struggles.
“The UK government invaded Afghanistan, and our heroin input rose in this country, the purity of heroin rose, so there must be something in that world where security services know about the drugs that are coming in from Colombia and the drugs that are coming in from Afghanistan based on intelligence,” Fraser said.
“I just find it interesting that as a country we didn’t even speak about that, and part four takes on refugees, it takes on sectarianism, prejudices and bias.”
He added: “You’re just trying to look at things in our society that are just often taboo, polarised.”
“When you stay in Scotland, you’re trying to hold a canvas up to the world and its realities. You’re showing that not everything is beautiful and that there is an ugliness about it.”
Fraser continued: “There’s a problem because the media in general do not want to paint that picture, it’s a romanticisation of Scotland, so for me, even taking on the school system, like our school systems are broken and almost there’s no accountability.”
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The filmmaker has created his grassroots collection of short films by self-funding the project and securing sponsorships from local businesses.
Many of those who star and work on Supply & Demand are individuals who would never have had the opportunity to enter Scotland’s screen industry, but it’s a barrier Fraser wants to help tear down.
Fraser believes that his cast of non-actors helps give his short 30-minute series more “believability” than if he were to use traditional actors.
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Many of his actors are boxers, Muay Thai fighters, and people who are trained in jiu-jitsu, as he held free acting workshops to help train people for starring roles in his series.
“I believe that there is a falseness that comes with traditional acting where somebody might be believable for the BBC, but that’s not necessarily what I am looking for,” Fraser said.
“I want my actors to be the guys that tell you a story in the pub or the bookies. There needs to be a genuineness there, and I think sometimes when you get trained actors, they get taught how to act for theater, or they get taught how to act for movies and sometimes they lose the essence of what acting really is.
“From my point of view, anyway, acting should be a journey of healing for the actors and for me as a director.”
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Fraser added: “I started up the acting academies and ended up making them free, because I was trying to remove the financial barrier for people learning the art.
“The way that I look at it is I’ve had an amazing career so far and I’ve had so many great opportunities and the more opportunities that I create, like I certainly didn’t want to pull the ladder up as I keep going.
“The whole point should be to push the ladder down so other people can have their own journey like that.”
Fraser has also been able to give opportunities for refugees to take part in his films as he partnered with the Scottish Refugee Council and held workshops to help teach them filmmaking and acting techniques.
He said as a patron of the Aberlour Trust, a children’s charity, he was told about Guardianship Scotland, which provides guardians to all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
He explained he worked with a group of around 20 young refugees who he then became friends, and then got them involved in the movie.
“They came down to Pilton and had an amazing time. Everybody opened their doors, and that for them,” Fraser said.
The filmmaker went on to explain that one of the refugees then went on to study media in college, while another went on to start learning how to use a camera.
Fraser said that his acting academy will be back up and running again in March, with plans to start shooting in Glasgow and Edinburgh in April through to May, with hopes of taking the part four trailer to Cannes Film Festival later in the year.
You can watch the series here on YouTube.