DVDs of the week

SWEET COUNTRY (CERT 15) £19.99

Crime and injustice walk hand in hand in director Warwick Thompson’s unflinching western drama, which is set in the 1920s against the stark backdrop of Australia’s Northern Territory. The spectre of the First World War casts a long shadow over many white landowners, who are haunted by their ordeals on the battlefield. They nurture the land with the help of Aboriginal farmhands who are frequently treated as slaves. Fred Smith (Sam Neill) is one of the few landowners to treat his workforce with respect and compassion, and he foolishly lends farmhand Sam Kelly to a neighbour, Harry March, to work on his cattle station. March’s disgusting, drunken behaviour sparks shocking violence and Sam goes on the run in the sweltering dry heat of the Outback. Police sergeant Fletcher assembles a posse of enraged white men to hunt down and capture Sam, then dole out fitting punishment for his transgression.

MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE (CERT 12) £15.99

Liam Neeson temporarily sidelines his action man screen persona to play notorious informant Deep Throat, who helped to expose the truth about the Watergate scandal which is pieced together from documents and interviews with insiders. FBI director J Edgar Hoover dies as President Richard Nixon faces uncomfortable questions about corruption. In his role as assistant director of the FBI, Mark Felt (Neeson) ensures Hoover’s private files are destroyed before the administration can appropriate them. Controversially, trusted Nixon aide L Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas) is promoted to acting director of the FBI and he issues the order from the Oval Office to abandon the investigation into a burglary at the Watergate office of the Democratic National Committee. Felt has always followed the rules and he carefully applies pressure through other channels to keep the investigation open. When the softly, softly approach fails to achieve the desired outcome, he risks everything to speak to journalist Bob Woodward (Julian Morris) and alter the course of history.

IN DARKNESS (CERT 15) £12.99

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer headlines a suspenseful thriller, which proves that seeing is deceiving. Sofia (Dormer) is a blind pianist, who leads an independent life with support from friends and neighbours including Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski), who lives upstairs. One day, Sofia hears a struggle in Veronique’s apartment that leads to the young woman’s death. As the sole witness to the crime, Sofia embarks on a one-woman crusade to uncover the truth. In the process, she crosses paths with Veronique’s distraught father, Zoran Radic (Jan Bijvoet), a Serbian businessman accused of committing acts of genocide during the Bosnian war.