Anthony Maras builds persuasive suspense from historical crises and people forced to make difficult decisions. We rate his brisk, contained filmmaking, though Pressure makes the case for professional expertise more neatly than it should.
Fi1m perspective
In Pressure (2026), Andrew Scott’s James Stagg has to give military leaders a weather forecast they may not want to hear. Brendan Fraser’s Eisenhower needs a firmer answer than the expert can honestly supply. We felt tense during their exchanges because neither man could remove the uncertainty on which the decision depended. Anthony Maras keeps these discussions moving without making the competing positions hard to follow. He trusts disagreement to hold our attention, and here it does.
That interest in people facing difficult circumstances reaches back to his shorts. Azadi (2005) concerns Afghan refugees in Australian detention centres, while The Palace (2011) deals with the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Maras wrote, directed and edited both. His feature debut, Hotel Mumbai (2019), dramatised the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. With Pressure, he makes wartime forecasting the subject of a thriller, relying on arguments between people with different responsibilities to sustain the suspense.
Scott makes Stagg seem more complicated than the script is willing to explore, while Fraser gives him a counterpart whose need for certainty we can understand. As editor as well as director, Maras gives each competing view enough time to register without lingering over the performances. He and co-writer David Haig allow some dry humour into the generals’ predicament: their authority is of little use against the weather. Jamie D. Ramsay uses saturated colour to give the enclosed setting some life, though the polished images can make the period rooms look too comfortable.
The trouble is that Pressure makes siding with Stagg a little too easy. Adapted from Haig’s play, it still proceeds through a succession of confrontations, and too many return to the satisfaction of watching the expert stand up to those in charge. We wanted the writing to test his judgement more severely, rather than repeatedly rewarding him for standing firm. Try Pressure for Scott and the steadily maintained tension, without expecting the screenplay to give him quite enough to struggle against.
Biography
Anthony Maras is an Australian film director, writer and editor. Born in Adelaide, he studied law at Flinders University before training in film at the University of California.
Maras began with award-winning short films including Azadi (2005), Spike Up (2007) and The Palace (2011). His feature debut Hotel Mumbai (2019), which he directed and co-wrote, dramatised the 2008 Mumbai attacks and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Maras directed, co-wrote with David Haig and edited the 2026 war drama Pressure, adapted from Haig's stage play and starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser.
