Tags
For my birthday, I watched Sweet Country. It’s a brilliant film: beautifully crafted shots, a clever plot working within the conventions of the thriller, and a superb evocation of 1920s outback Australia. It’s the story of an Aboriginal man, Sam Kelly, who shoots a white man in self-defence and goes on the run. At one point the townspeople are watching a travelling screening of the early silent film The Story of the Kelly Gang, and the parallel is a good one: in Sam Kelly, we have an outlaw we can unequivocally cheer on. The actor who plays him, Hamilton Morris, is brilliant. I love the fact that in 2018 we can finally have a film with a middle-aged Aboriginal hero, wise, quiet, and complicated and so alien to every cliche of Hollywood heroes. I also love this film for the way it made me experience the outback, the heat, the beauty, the harsh life. It made me glad to be Australian. It comes just as I’m re-reading Katharine Prichard’s Coonardoo, published the same time the film is set. The whole film feels like a contemporary reworking of Prichard’s outback ouevre from an Aboriginal perspective. For that and many other reasons I recommend it highly.
Nathan Hobby, a biographer in Perth 
I loved this film too. Great performances from some very experienced actors and from some first-timers.
For those of your readers near Sydney, there’s a big installation at the moment of stills from the set by Tamara Dean and others down near Darling Harbour, off Harbour Street. For those further away: http://ambushgallery.com/sweet-country-stills-exhibition
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Isaac. Hard to believe some of the actors were first timers!
LikeLike
I know! I’d never have guessed myself but the audience at the AFI screening were told so afterwards by the producers in a Q&A. Equally hard to believe was how quick the shoot was and how small the budget. Warwick Thornton is a master and I believe a good crew is beginning to assemble around him.
LikeLiked by 1 person