Wolfram is a further impressive example of the brilliance of Warwick Thornton as he captures the light, shade, and flies of the bush while telling another important story of the brutality of the Australian experience in the 1930’s. Amongst the violence however hope shines through.
Inspired by true events, Wolfram returns to the same country that Thornton’s masterly 2017 film Sweet Country was set with some of the characters from Sweet Country returning. Wolfram is set five years after Sweet Country.
The film chronicles the plight of two young Aboriginal children, Max (Hazel Jackson) and Kid (Eli Hart), who perform hard labour in a tungsten (colloquially known as wolfram) mine overseen by stern Billy (Matt Nable). Their camp is visited by the menacing Casey (Erroll Shand) and companion Frank (Joe Bird). Elsewhere Pansy (Debra Mailman) with her partner Zang (Jason Chong), a Chinese mining prospector, set out to find her missing children as she leaves her plaited hair and berries as signals for them.
Later after visiting town, Casey and Frank visit Mick (Thomas M Wright) and his desert cattle station where all the work is done by his Aboriginal son Philomac (Pedrea Jackson) and the storylines begin to converge. The narratives are in part told in short flashbacks.
The story is based on screenwriter David Tranter’s Alyawarra family history being exploited as child labourers at the Hatches Creek wolfram (tungsten) mine in the Northern Territory and his Chinese-Australian roots. Warwick Thornton’s great-grandmother and her daughters also worked at Hatches Creek.
Thornton as director and cinematographer delivers a film that not only highlights the exceptional script and cast but he also accents Central Australia in all its heat and sweat with flies the audience almost feels the need to shoo, with parts feeling so visceral that the audience can smell the perspiration and the dead horse in the town’s street.
The whole cast delivers brilliant performances. Erroll Shand as the sadistic Casey is brutally outstanding and Thomas M Wright as Mick is again excellent. The two young actors, Hazel Jackson and Eli Hart along with Pedrea Jackson are marvelous and carry the film.
This is a story of Australian history that all Australians should learn, but in addition, audiences should see Wolfram because it is superbly constructed adding to the growing list of exceptional Warwick Thornton films.
Wolfram screens nationally from 30 April but on Sunday April 26 there will be a special advance preview of Wolfram, followed by an in-person Q&A with director Warwick Thornton at Palace Nova Cinemas Eastend, Rundle Street City.
More details here: Wolfram Special Q&A Screening Sunday 26 April
Reviewed by Rob McKinnon
Rating; 5 out of 5
YouTube trailer: Wolfram Official Trailer
Distributor: Bunya Productions
Wolfram is superbly constructed adding to the growing list of exceptional Warwick Thornton films.
