Two outlaws swagger in. Three kids bolt out. The desert doesn't forgive.
1930s Australia, the colonial frontier: two swaggering outlaws roll into a mining town and unleash a wave of cruelty, leading three kids to break free from their white masters and set off across the 'sweet country' of central Australia in search of a safe home.
Direction
Thornton shoots Australia like a wound that won't close.
Cinematography
Every frame could hang in a gallery of colonial guilt.
Acting
The child performers carry unbearable weight with grace.
Director
Warwick Thornton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Thornton, an Indigenous director, reclaims the Western genre from decades of settler mythmaking.
Pedrea Jackson and Joe Bird were non-professionals discovered in remote communities; their performances are unscripted rawness.
AU
