![]() ![]() Missionary Fred Smith tags along, hoping to prevent another murder. Aware that Fletcher is hell bent on avenging March’s death. Police Sergeant Fletcher, also a WWI veteran, leads a posse in pursuit. Sam kills March in self-defence and with Lizzie they flee the scene. The missionary, however, is away and Sam’s attempts to defuse the situation only inflame March, who opens fire on the house. The still raging March thinks Philomac is hiding inside, fixes a bayonet to his gun and demands he be handed over. The next morning March orders Archie to find the boy and they track him to the missionary’s homestead. That night Philomac frees himself and runs away. March catches and beats the child, and then chains him up like a dog. Philomac notices the former soldier’s watch during the trip to March’s homestead and when they arrive he tries to steal it. March subsequently persuades Kennedy to lend him two of his workers-Archie (Gibson John) and 14-year-old boy Philomac (a role shared by twins Tremayne and Trevon Doolan). Sam and Lizzie return to the missionary’s farm. While he is gone March rapes Lizzie and threatens to kill her if she tells her husband. Sam takes Lizzie with him to the veteran’s homestead but is soon sent far away to muster cattle. He prevails upon Smith, against his better judgement, to do the “Christian” thing and allow him to borrow Sam for a day or two to help with some work on his property. March is so mentally broken by three years on the Western Front that he drinks himself into oblivion every night. World War I veteran Harry March (Ewen Leslie) arrives in the district and runs a nearby cattle property. The missionary even encourages Sam to call him by his first name rather than “boss,” which does not go down well with the other landowners. The one exception is Christian missionary Fred Smith (Sam Neill), who believes “We are all equal in the eyes of the Lord” and behaves accordingly toward Aboriginal stockman Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) and wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber), who live and work on his property. ![]() His undisguised contempt for his workers is typical of the cruel treatment unleashed by most of the settlers in the film against the indigenous population. Wright), a sadistic man who submits his Aboriginal workers to a barrage of verbal and physical abuse. The principal landowner in Sweet Country is Mick Kennedy (Thomas M. This is the context of Sweet Country, a place where most of the indigenous population has been forced from their land and compelled to work in virtual slave-like conditions for the new settlers. The Aboriginal people, who had inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, were cleared from the land, like trees or wild animals, and by any means available. The expansion of the pastoral industry throughout the continent required the forced removal of the indigenous population from tribal land, so it could be used exclusively for sheep, beef, wheat and other agricultural products. Private ownership of land and its exclusive use for profit are the product of capitalism these concepts are entirely alien to Aboriginal society. Occupation and colonisation of Australia by Britain were part of the spread of capitalism across the globe. The brief reference hints at the driving force of the dispossession-the drive for property and capitalist profits-the underlying cause of all the horrors imposed on the indigenous population over the past two centuries. It takes its title from a description given by a local police officer, Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown) to then unsettled Aboriginal tribal lands: “Some sweet country out there. Sweet Country is set in central Australia in 1929, and loosely based on a true story. ![]() Now we’re starting to write down our history with our version of events.” As Thornton told the Sydney Morning Herald: “A lot of our history was written by colonisers who wanted to … put themselves in a favourable light. This one uncovers ugly truths about the country’s colonial past that the establishment has sought to sweep under the carpet. Sweet Country, Thornton’s follow-up feature, is an equally important film. ![]() The critically acclaimed work about two indigenous teenagers revealed to global audiences the unemployment, poverty and substance abuse facing thousands of young Aborigines. Samson and Delilah (2009), Warwick Thornton’s first dramatic feature, announced the arrival of a talented filmmaker, committed to exposing some of the realities of the lives of Aboriginal Australians. Written by David Tranter and Steven McGregor, filmed and directed by Warwick Thornton ![]()
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