SAFE Harbour wants you to ask yourself, “What would you do?”

If you were on a sailing trip with your friends and came across an asylum seeker boat filled with desperate people and a dead engine, would you help them?

In SBS’ smart and provocative prestige drama, five Australian friends found themselves in this scenario. Agreeing to tow the fishing boat back to Australian waters, the group woke up the next morning to find it gone, the rope cut.

Convincing themselves the asylum seekers had cut themselves loose and taken the dinghy and life jackets, they say nothing. Years later, one of the refugees, Ismail, finds the friends in Brisbane. Ismail (Hazem Shammas) is now a cab driver and wants justice for what happened — he says the Australians deliberately cast them off and, consequently, seven people died.

Ryan (Ewen Leslie), the captain of the boat and a reasonable man who is genuinely delighted to see Ismail survived the journey, becomes embroiled in the AFP investigation into what happened that night. The two groups’ — the friends and the asylum seekers — relationships are tested, as secrets are unearthed and the gravity of those deaths weigh on everyone.

The series is structured so that it oscillates between present day dramas and flashbacks of that fateful sail, slowly revealing more only to throw up more questions.

The mystery of who cut the rope is the narrative drive of this compelling four-episode series starting tonight, but there is much more going on here than the story of these two groups or some personal plea to check your own humanity.

The issue of asylum seekers is undoubtedly a politically hot topic in the community. On the one hand is Australia’s international obligation to those fleeing horrific situations, while on the other is the instinct to protect what you already have.

What happens on the water that day, between the rickety overcrowded boat with sick women and children, and the larger, shiny yacht with five people can be seen as a clever microcosm of the larger issue.

Not everyone in the Australian group wants to help — they fear for their safety, they fear for their children’s futures, all understandable emotions. Others want to do what they think is right.

On the other side are Ismail and his family whose differing perspectives on justice versus vengeance, inside and outside the law, are fuelled by grief and trauma. That the show spends equal time with them is a testament to the production’s commitment to consider each experience.

Can we talk about Ewen Leslie for a moment? The Western Australian actor has been a presence on screen and stage going back 15 years, and that’s not counting his time as a child actor on shows like Ship to Shore.

While not necessarily a household name among Home and Away-watchers, Leslie is one of the most talented and captivating actors we have, whether that’s opposite Nicole Kidman in last year’s Top of the Lake: China Girl or treading the boards with Cate Blanchett on stage in War of the Roses. He’s had spectacular turns in The Daughter, Dead Europe and Mabo.

Leslie’s involvement alone in a project is reason enough to watch something and it is no different with Safe Harbour. As Ryan, he imbues the role with an everyman relatability and never overplays his hand, which would’ve been only too easy.

When Australian TV is seemingly filled, wall-to-wall, with one same-same reality franchise after another, it can be hard to find quality Australian stories that offer you something new. This is one, and you best not miss it.