A classic Western from Outback Oz

Sweet Country (15) Verdict: Terrific Australian ‘Western’ ★★★★✩

THE title of this truly gripping film, a classic Western in all but its setting, is ironic. The backdrop is Australia’s Northern Territory, where the Outback has a genuine beauty but is also harsh and unforgiving, anything but sweet. So are the local settlers, especially to the indigenous population, who are treated like feudal serfs. The only man who shows them respect is a God-fearing farmer, Fred Smith (Sam Neill). Against his better judgment, Fred lends his Aboriginal stockman, Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris), to a new neighbour, war veteran Harry March (Ewen Leslie), for a couple of days. Sam duly rides over with his wife and niece to help ‘the white fella’, but Harry is not a principled man like Fred; he is a callous bully and, it turns out, a rapist. That he is half-addled by traumatic memories of the Western Front hardly excuses his brutality. When Harry later storms over to Fred’s place in an alcohol-fuelled search for a runaway boy, there is an exchange of gunfire. Harry is killed and Sam and his wife go on the run, hunted by a posse led by the bigoted local lawman, Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown). Eventually there is a trial, presided over by a visiting judge, who must decide whether Sam shot Harry in self-defence. For most of the townsfolk, however, it’s a clear-cut case of murder. It’s a simple but stirring tale, wonderfully acted and directed with terrific verve but also great sensitivity by Warwick Thornton, who is himself from an Aboriginal background. He has done his own cinematography, too, turning the extraordinary landscape almost into a character in its own right. This is a very accomplished film.