SWEET COUNTRY

After a wave of silly and insignificant Australian films have failed to find an audience in recent years, surfaces a powerful and very dramatic film which should allure discerning movie-goers into cinemas.

Directed by Warwick Thornton and starring high calibre actors Bryan Brown and Sam Neill in pivotal roles, this film is set in 1929 and explores the abuse and lack of justice imposed on Aboriginals.

Inspired by true events, the story surrounds Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris), an aged Aboriginal farmhand living in the Northern Territory who shoots a white man in self-defence. A posse gathers and hunt him down with the intention of ‘hanging him after the trial’.

Audiences will ponder – can a black man receive a fair trial for having shot a ‘white fellow’ regardless of the circumstances?

The oppression and indignity suffered by the Aboriginals is realistically depicted and heightened by a skilfully written and engaging script and notably by the absence of a musical score.

The final moments of the film will shock and anger audiences as the memorable words, “what chance does this country have,” are delivered, in relation to the on-going injustice and inequality between the white and black populations. (MMo)

★★★★