Sweet Country is Australian filmmaking at its best

AT TIMES transcendent and at times deeply uncomfortable, this spectacularly shot Australian story is a must-see.

WHEN Warwick Thornton’s magnificent debut feature Samson and Delilah premiered in 2009, it announced the arrival of a significant Australian filmmaker.

Thornton had previously mostly worked in documentaries and it was clear from that thoughtful film his commitment to authentic experiences extended to his scripted features.

Sweet Country had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year and was rapturously received by critics around the world who found a universal emotional resonance in a uniquely Australian story. It picked up a Special Jury Prize at Venice. It also won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The sparse landscapes and the ubiquitous red dust of the Australian outback, and the laconic, no bullsh*t characters that inhabit the land naturally lends itself to Westerns. While taking its cues from the genre, Sweet Country is not a conventional Western. There are no clear white hats or black hats and the climax isn’t some shootout at sunset.

Warwick Thornton was director and cinematographer on Sweet Country.

A subtle but breathtaking piece of work, Sweet Country stabs right at the heart of Australian identity and the heartbreak that built this country, told through a wrenching tale of justice and injustice.

Set in the interwar era in the NT outback, Sweet Country is the story of Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris), a quiet and unassuming Aboriginal man working on Fred Smith’s (Sam Neill) property. When a new neighbour, Harry March (Ewen Leslie), asks to borrow Sam, who he refers to as “black stock”, to help with some fencing, Fred reluctantly agrees.

Sam, his wife and his niece, spend two days on Harry’s property. A drunk and quick to anger, Harry is described by those who encounter him as “not right in the head”. He’s a WWI veteran who saw horrors on the Western Front — we know he’s suffering from PTSD, which makes his supposed villainy much more complex than it would be in a lesser film.

When events lead to Sam shooting Harry in self-defence, Sam and his wife immediately take off, on the run from the law that will surely strike him down for killing a white man. The town’s head cop, Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown), assembles a hunting party and goes after the outlaw pair.

A significant film in Australian cinema.

Sweet Country is a slow burn, an almost meditative reflection on the power dynamics between the white colonialists and the indigenous population they displaced, and the long shadow of our history.

Every performance is hypnotic and layered, including all the mostly first-time local actors Thornton found in the NT while the otherworldly landscapes of the outback are beautifully captured by Thornton’s lens (he was also the director of photography).

At times transcendent and at times deeply uncomfortable, Sweet Country is Australian filmmaking at its best.

Rating: 4.5/5

Sweet Country is in cinemas from today.

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