Sweet Country

  • 113'
  • Australia
  • 2017

White Australians and Aborigines under the same roof: it seems genuinely possible at the start of Sweet Country. In 1929, Sam and his wife Lizzie live with and work for a friendly farmer, until he – with the best intentions – ‘lends them’ to a former soldier who has zero respect for people of a different color. Sam is forced to kill him, and because vigilante justice seems more likely than an honest trial, he and Lizzie flee into the outback.

This might sound like the start of a tense chase thriller, but director and cameraman Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) creates something else entirely. A stylized, beautifully shot Western that gives the characters their own personal histories using soundless, non-chronological flashbacks and flash-forwards. Effectively told, leaving plenty of room for reflection on a society in which justice loses out to mutual distrust.

 

 

  • 113'
  • Australia
  • 2017
Director
Warwick Thornton
Country of production
Australia
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
113'
Medium
DCP
Languages
English, Arrernte
Producers
Greer Simpkin, David Jowsey
Production Company
Bunya Productions
Sales
Memento Films International
Screenplay
David Tranter, Steven McGregor
Cinematography
Warwick Thornton, Dylan River
Editor
Nick Meyers
Production Design
Tony Cronin
Sound Design
David Tranter, Will Sheridan
Music
Damien Lane
Cast
Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Hamilton Morris, Thomas M. Wright, Ewen Leslie, Gibson John, Natassia Gorey-Furber
Local Distributor
Cherry Pickers
Director
Warwick Thornton
Country of production
Australia
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
113'
Medium
DCP
Languages
English, Arrernte
Producers
Greer Simpkin, David Jowsey
Production Company
Bunya Productions
Sales
Memento Films International
Screenplay
David Tranter, Steven McGregor
Cinematography
Warwick Thornton, Dylan River
Editor
Nick Meyers
Production Design
Tony Cronin
Sound Design
David Tranter, Will Sheridan
Music
Damien Lane
Cast
Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Hamilton Morris, Thomas M. Wright, Ewen Leslie, Gibson John, Natassia Gorey-Furber
Local Distributor
Cherry Pickers

Programme IFFR 2018

Limelight

Avant-premieres of some of the cinematic highlights of the year: international award-winners and festival favourites that will be released in Dutch cinemas after IFFR.

Read more about this programme