Winner
Venice Horizons Award ~ Special Jury Prize
Venice Film Festival
Nominee
Golden Lion
Venice Film Festival
A searing indictment of frontier racism as remarkable for its sonic restraint as its visual expansiveness.
Sweet Country
Sam, a middle-aged Aboriginal man, works for a preacher in the outback of Australia's Northern Territory. When Harry, a bitter war veteran, moves into a neighbouring outpost, the preacher sends Sam and his family to help Harry renovate his cattle yards. But Sam's relationship with the cruel and ill-tempered Harry quickly deteriorates, culminating in a violent shootout in which Sam kills Harry in self-defence. As a result, Sam becomes a wanted criminal for the murder of a white man, and is forced to flee with his wife across the deadly outback, through glorious but harsh desert country. A hunting party led by the local lawman Sergeant Fletcher is formed to track Sam down. But as the true details of the killing start to surface, the community begins to question whether justice is really being served.
Runtime: 113 min
Language: English
Awards:
- Winner, Venice Horizons Award ~ Special Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival
- Nominee, Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival
FEATURED REVIEW:
Guy Lodge, Variety
“We’re all equal in the eyes of the Lord,” says a benevolent rural preacher in the opening scenes of “Sweet Country” — but the Lord’s eyes are evidently cast far from Alice Springs, the ravishing but spiritually soured landscape against which...
“We’re all equal in the eyes of the Lord,” says a benevolent rural preacher in the opening scenes of “Sweet Country” — but the Lord’s eyes are evidently cast far from Alice Springs, the ravishing but spiritually soured landscape against which...
