The Stan Original Series Thou Shalt Not Steal is unlike anything else on Australian TV.

There's a ripple of excited energy in the air at any premiere, but last week at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, that energy quickly tripled.

On October 17, Alice Springs locals and creators alike gathered to celebrate the Australian premiere of the new Stan Original Series Thou Shalt Not Steal, which was directed and co-created by Dylan River (Mystery Road: Origin, Robbie Hood). River was in attendance, alongside cast members Miranda Otto, Will McDonald and Sherry-Lee Watson.

Thou Shalt Not Steal is an eight-part series that follows Robyn (Watson), a young Aboriginal girl who escapes from detention and then reluctantly teams up with an awkward teenager named Gidge (McDonald). The pair travel across the outback in a stolen taxi in search of her father, and in the hopes of unraveling some family secrets.

Chasing after them during this off-the-rails road trip is Maxine (Otto), a sex trafficker whose taxi Robyn stole, and Gidge's disheveled and unreliable father Robert (Noah Taylor), who has been posing as a fraudulent preacher.

Image: Stan.

Despite the fact that Thou Shalt Not Steal had already screened at the Toronto Film Festival and received positive reviews, River said he was actually more nervous the series being screened for his hometown.

"I was born in Alice Springs, I grew up here, and I still live here so it makes me nervous to premiere something here," he told Mamamia at the premiere. "Everything I make, I make for this town. I write based on what I see around me and I write to try and help what I see around me, whether it's political or social.

"My work is about bringing some humour to this town and bringing positivity to Alice Springs," he continued. "So to have the premiere here is so special, but also so nerve-wracking. I really just hope the community laugh at it, celebrate it, and accept it."

When it came to casting the lead role of Robyn, River said finding the right actress seemed like an impossible task at first. At least, until Heartbreak High actress Sherry-Lee Watson appeared on the scene.

"What I was most nervous about after we finished writing the series was how we were going to find an actress to play our main protagonist Robyn," he said. "I knew I needed to find a girl from Alice Springs; a young girl who was confident, and who could act. There were a bunch of other criteria that I knew this actress really needed to be able to pull this off, and I was very worried I wouldn't find that person.

"Then I got a bunch of auditions sent through by the casting agent from around Australia and Sherry Lee sent in an audition," he continued. "She's quite a few years younger than me, and I didn't realise she was from Alice Springs. She'd been in Heartbreak High and she'd gone away to study in Melbourne. So she already had the runs on the board and it was like the stars were aligning.

"Sherry was the first person we cast and then I asked her who she thought should play Gidge and straight away she said (fellow Heartbreak High star) Will McDonald, not knowing he had already sent in an audition.

"With my previous work, I've realised that I was sort of preaching to the converted slightly with Mystery Road and work like that," he continued. "I hope this show accesses a new audience and I really think that what we've made is a light, easy watch. We tried to make something that is short and sharp and fast and that you want to watch quickly."

Image: Stan.

At the show's premiere, Sherry-Lee Watson stood on stage looking out at the crowd filled with her family and friends. She told the crowd that in all the years participating in school eisteddfods on that very stage, she never expected this moment to take place.

"The series is about Robyn's journey and discovering a long-lost family secret," the actress told Mamamia. "It's about her determination and along the way she does a lot of interesting and sometimes questionable things.

"She's a young girl from Alice Springs and I'm a young girl from Alice Springs and we both want to see what the world is like, but we have to jump over some hurdles in order to get there," she explained.

For Watson, getting to play Robyn — in a series filmed in her hometown — is a dream come true.

"Honestly, I never dreamed that I could come home and do the work that I love here," she continued. "The work I left Alice Springs for, let alone star in the series and shoot it here. My family now gets to see that my job is real, and I wasn't making anything up when I said I wanted to go away and be an actor. "A lot of Aussies haven't really been able to see this part of our country on their screen before; it doesn't get showcased too much. Even people who have lived in this country their entire lives — who were born here and raised here — have not seen this part of Australia.

"We have a very diverse range of stories to be told in this country," she continued. "Through so many different beautiful types of landscapes and people, that's what I want audiences to take away from this show."

For Australian actress Miranda Otto, bringing the tough and streetwise Maxine to life on screen was a joy — once they had all decided exactly who she was going to be.

"I didn't have a huge grasp initially on who exactly who Maxine was going to be when we first started out," she told Mamamia. "I had a bit of an outline but it wasn't really until a hot minute before we started shooting that the scripts actually came through, and I could see Maxine be fully realised.

"Then I thought, 'Okay, time to get on board and get your Aussie on!'

"This series pays homage to that sort of older-style Australian humour stuff that we used to love growing up," she continued. "But it also twists the story very much into a modern frame and a modern vision."

For Otto, one of the most exciting aspects of joining Thou Shalt Not Steal was the on-location shoot, and the opportunity to put Alice Springs in the spotlight.

"We were constantly living on the side of the road and some days were really hot and there were so many flies," Otto recalled. "But when you see the finished product it all just looks so amazing and that's why we're here.

"It's so epic to actually be out on location and shoot in some of these amazing sites and bring attention to that side of Australia that often doesn't get on the screen." All episodes of The Stan Original Series Thou Shalt Not Steal are now available to watch, only on Stan.

Feature image: Stan.