Synopsis
In 1929, an Australian Aboriginal stockman kills a white station owner in self-defense and goes on the lam, pursued by a posse.
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Cast
- Hamilton MorrisSam Kelly
- Bryan BrownSergeant Fletcher
- Sam NeillFred Smith
- Thomas M. WrightMick Kennedy
- Ewen LeslieHarry March
- Matt DayJudge Taylor
- Gibson JohnArchie
- Natassia Gorey FurberLizzie
- Anni FinstererNell
- Tremayne DoolanPhilomac
Recommendations
- 100
The Telegraph
Sweet Country is tough, spare and lyrical right down to the bone.... It is also a work of moral conscience that rules out easy answers, with acridly funny moments of black comedy and a sense of awesome natural spectacle that is inseparable from its dramatic impact. It has a power that makes the cinema shake. - 100
The Guardian
This is fiercely powerful storytelling, simple and muscular in one way, but also conveying nuance and sophistication in its depiction of character. - 100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The story is both fresh and archetypal; the landscape both hard and delicate – and beautifully observed. Memories and premonitions are intriguingly inserted into the action and the performances...are note perfect. - 91
The Playlist
Sweet Country is unmistakably a western in iconography and spare, taciturn tone, but it is also an incendiary slave narrative, in which the poetry of the filmmaking can barely contain a simmering fury and disgust at this most shameful of human institutions. - 83
The Film Stage
Thornton establishes himself as a director to watch, and with fine performances from Neill, Brown, Gorey-Furber, and, especially, Hamilton Morris, also reveals an ability to make an epic tale feel deeply personal. - 83
The A.V. Club
Poetically directed by Warwick Thornton, whose Samson & Delilah also threw a spotlight over aboriginal characters, Sweet Country has a shaggy, digressive eccentricity common to Ozploitation cinema, not to mention a humane understanding of its characters. - 80
Empire
Sweet Country is epic and personal, daring to tell a simple story in a challenging, arresting way. It’s a demanding two hours but leavened by great performances, especially from newcomer Hamilton Morris. - 80
Total Film
The beauty of Alice Springs offers a profound contrast with the ugly acts committed by its inhumane colonists.
