Sweet Country

Director: Warwick Thornton
Production house: Bunya Productions
Producers: David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin

The story.

From the Director behind Samson & Delilah, Sweet Country is an Australian period western, inspired by true events in Alice Springs in 1929. Sam, a middle-aged Indigenous stockman is thrust into turmoil when he kills a white station owner in self-defence and is forced to flee with his wife across the perilous outback. The pair are pursued through the unforgiving desert country, to be put on trial for murder. But as the chase continues and the true details of the killing surface, the community begins to question whether justice is really being served.

Sleep was scarce, waking pre-dawn each day to catch the morning chorus, recording through the midday heat and late into the night to capture the abundant sounds of the area.

Exploring with free reign.

Warwick took a hands-off approach to sound design and audio post-production. He insisted on no music and emphasized the importance of sound design to connect the audience to the story. Beyond that, we had total creative freedom to craft the sound world for the film. While this was a hugely exciting aspect of the project, it also added a certain nail-biting eagerness to the air as we awaited his feedback.

A glimpse into the process.

During Sweet Country production, we were lucky enough to travel through the Australian outback recording sound effects straight from the source, right down to the most granular detail. With no score whatsoever, the film relies heavily on these natural elements to create mood and support the story. This enabled us to tap into our creativity as we tackled the challenge of drawing emotion from the sound effects.

Getting in on the ground.

Exploring the breath-taking country not only allowed us to gather recordings of all the right insects, birds, and wind patterns but also plugged us into the natural rhythm of the landscape. We developed a keen understanding of what’s active at particular times of day and translated that to the soundtrack to solidify a sense of place and ground the audience in the setting.

Revisiting shoot locations.

The town built especially for the movie (a set of tin sheds set amongst a vast expanse of desert) was still intact and abandoned. So, naturally, we had a blast accessing all the buildings to capture a host of doors, rattles, and prop manipulations to add further realism to the soundtrack.

The final product was a confronting, hard-hitting exploration of colonial racism designed to make audiences uncomfortable. This was amplified by the lack of music, leaving viewers to feel the full range of uneasiness the content warrants.

Spreading the message.

Sweet Country is a hugely important project, so we shared a mixture of excitement and nerves throughout the process. Bringing awareness to an important topic and playing a part in sharing stories that help us all to learn, reflect, and grow is such a privilege. As the project came to us in our early days, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a masterful and acclaimed Director like Warwick Thorton and even more thrilled that he was blown away with the final product mixed immaculately with industry legend Phil Heywood.

Sweet Country

The story.

Sleep was scarce, waking pre-dawn each day to catch the morning chorus, recording through the midday heat and late into the night to capture the abundant sounds of the area.

A glimpse into the process.

Getting in on the ground.

Revisiting shoot locations.

The final product was a confronting, hard-hitting exploration of colonial racism designed to make audiences uncomfortable. This was amplified by the lack of music, leaving viewers to feel the full range of uneasiness the content warrants.

Spreading the message.

Let's make
some magic.

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About

Sweet Country

The story.

Sleep was scarce, waking pre-dawn each day to catch the morning chorus, recording through the midday heat and late into the night to capture the abundant sounds of the area.

A glimpse into the process.

Getting in on the ground.

Revisiting shoot locations.

The final product was a confronting, hard-hitting exploration of colonial racism designed to make audiences uncomfortable. This was amplified by the lack of music, leaving viewers to feel the full range of uneasiness the content warrants.

Spreading the message.

Let's make some magic.

Follow

Specialities

About

Let's make
some magic.