Sweet Country

[kevinknapman]

With Sweet Country, the indigenous Australian director Warwick Thornton delivers a potent and poetic western that looks at the impact of white colonisation of Aboriginal land.

When Sam Kelly, an Aboriginal worker on the land of the devoutly religious Fred Smith, kills a white man in self-defence, he goes on the run across country. Several men, including Sergeant Fletcher, Smith and an Aboriginal tracker called Archie head off in pursuit.

From its opening shot of a billy can boiling with a black mixture into which a white powder is poured as the sound of a violent incident takes place in the background, Sweet Country offers up a complex, often brutal study of colonisation and racism. The story itself may be relatively straightforward but Thornton embellishes it with some fascinating brief and soundless flashbacks and flashforwards throughout which intertwine the traumas of the character's pasts with their hopes and fears for the future.
An occasionally disorienting device perhaps, but one which makes you sit up and take notice.

The film makes impressive use of the Australian landscape around Alice Springs, so the film is as visually rich as the story is occasionally ugly.

The fine cast is a mix of non-professional indigenous actors including Hamilton Morris who is particularly good as Sam Kelly and veteran actors such as Sam Neill as Fred Smith, Bryan Brown as Sergeant Fletcher and Matt Day as a visiting judge.

A brutal but rewarding film, Sweet Country tells an essential story in a compelling fashion. Definitely worth a look.

[h3r013]

Hi, I tried cancelling my booking for tomorrow but the page is not displaying properly. Anyone else have this problem?

[RandomHajile]

stunning movie, visually, story wise and even editing!

well worth the trip to a packed wimbledon and all the plastic wrapper noises from people stuffing their faces for an hour on snacks

9/10

[ladams888]

Saw this is Wimbledon Odeon. A very dark film about the subjugation of the Australian aboriginals in the early years of the twentieth century. Sam Neill, was excellent as Fred Smith, a god-fearing farmer who employed Sam, an aborigine. Unusually theirs was more of a partnership rather than an employer/employee relationship. A neighbouring farmer, Harry March, was shot by Sam – in pure self defence. As I watched this I felt the wheels of fate turning, as I felt that because of the way the aboriginals were being treated that there would be no way out for Sam. We watched him and his wife on the run surrounded by the visually stunning but foreboding Australian landscape. They finally give themselves up and a trial takes place. Bryan Brown was totally believable as the bad-ass police sergeant. A slow-paced, very moving and thought–provoking film which highlighted how badly the aboriginals were treated. Even today they still don’t have as much respect as they deserve. I would imagine that many of the younger audience would find it too slow, but I would say, stick with it, drink in the scenery and at the same time learn a bit of history. 9/10

P.S. The man next to us had an enormous crackly bag of popcorn that over the first hour and a quarter he kept delving into every five minutes. It was VERY distracting and annoying and it really spoilt the moment - especially as there was no soundtrack to the film - just birdsong and wind – this was completely marred by his crackly bag of popcorn. He seemed to be completely oblivious of the noise he was making.

[ladams888]

..... and all the plastic wrapper noises from people stuffing their faces for an hour on snacks

9/10

We sat next to the perpetrator - it was crackle, crackle, crackle, rustle, rustle, rustle for an hour and a quarter

[RandomHajile]

yeah, that guy on the left kept putting the packet away only to then have a new packet later?

anyways i like how

Spoiler

Show

they showed that coward by his fireplace before the fact, great editing, and how sam neil then made a church (so the court can have some privacy perhaps?)

[prettyxcool]

An amazing, and riveting Australian outback drama, based on a true story.

It is a very powerful, brutal and disturbing account of Australian's history of their indigenous people.

There is no score but just the silence and real sounds, that are really effective, especially the main character, hardly speaks at all, and has little emotion, but his faced conveys it all. The cinematography is amazing too.

The casting is excellent, and the indigenous plays themselves. Well worth seeing if you get a chance. 9/10

[alythonian]

Brutal but powerful. Very well acted and a sturdy well told. Really hard to fathom that it was less than 100 years ago. Tragic and haunting like the landscapes in the film.