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Aboriginal stockman Sam (Hamilton Morris) goes on the run after shooting white station owner Harry March (Ewen Leslie) in self-defence.
Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country explores racism, trauma and morality through a western genre lens and is based on the story of Willaberta Jack, great uncle of sound recordist and co-producer David Tranter, who translated the tale into storyboards, some of which you can see below.
The action unfolds 30km from Alice Springs in the fictional town of Henry, which was created by extending and adding to structures built for a previous film. Its dusty streets and sun-bleached buildings embody western motifs, which are also apparent in the narrative, props and costumes.
The costumes were hand-painted with dust and powder to blend into the harsh landscape – except for Harry’s black-and-red outfit, which Thornton wanted to look like “a poisonous redback spider”.
“Sweet Country is a western. A period western set in Central Australia. It has all the elements of the genre - the frontier, confiscation of land, subordination and conquest of a people and epic sweeping landscapes.” – Warwick Thornton, director of Sweet Country
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