AHFW travels all the way Down Under to find its movie of the week…the searing and unforgettable drama “Sweet Country”.
“Sweet Country” – Set in 1929 Australia, director Warwick Thornton delivers a deeply affective western – which won TIFF’s 2017 Platform Prize – as it wraps its story in entrenched divides between whites and aborigines. When Fred Smith (Sam Neill) leaves his ranch for a business trip, his hired hand Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) becomes embroiled in a violent incident. Sam and his wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey Furber) find themselves on the run, and an ornery officer of the law (Bryan Brown) follows in tight pursuit. Sam and other aboriginal people depict a collective subordinate bow towards white ranchers and authority figures, and Thornton captures these moments in very obvious and subtle ways. Life has stacked the deck against Sam, but will the legal threads of Australian justice treat him fairly? The parallels between “Sweet Country” and America’s history feel eerily comparable.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Image credits: Bunya Productions; Trailer credits: Transmission Films
