Sweet Country

Feature film

Following its world premiere screening in Competition at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, SWEET COUNTRY received a standing ovation and has garnered outstanding international critical reviews. The film won the SPECIAL JURY PRIZE at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and has gone on to win numerous awards around the world including the prestigious Platform section of the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best Dramatic Film ImagineNATIVE festival 2017, the Audience Award at the Adelaide Film Festival, Best Feature Screenplay at Australian Writers Guild and Critics Awards at Camerimage, Luxembourg, Venice and Dublin Film Festivals.

Synopsis

Inspired by real events, Sweet Country is a period western set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory, Australia.

When Aboriginal stockman Sam (Hamilton Morris) kills white station owner Harry March (Ewen Leslie) in self-defence, Sam and his wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber) go on the run. They are pursued across the outback, through glorious but harsh desert country.

Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown) leads the posse with the help of Aboriginal tracker Archie (Gibson John) and local landowners Fred Smith (Sam Neill) and Mick Kennedy (Thomas M. Wright). Fletcher is desperate to capture Sam and put him on trial for murder – but Sam is an expert bushman and he has little difficulty outlasting them. Will Sam be captured and will justice be served?

Awards

Venice Film Festival 2017

Special Jury Prize

Toronto International Film Festival 2017: Platform Competition

Best Film

Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2017

Best Feature Film

View all

Credits

Directed by Warwick Thornton, written by David Tranter and Steven McGregor and starring Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Hamilton Morris, Gibson John, Natassia Gorey-Furber, Thomas M Wright, Ewen Leslie, Matt Day, Anni Finsterer and introducing Tremayne and Trevon Doolan.

SWEET COUNTRY is produced by Bunya Productions, with major production investment and development support from Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department, in association with the South Australian Film Corporation, Create NSW, Screen Territory and the Adelaide Film Festival. International sales are being handled by Memento and the Australian release by Transmission Films.