Warwick Thornton on the set of Wolfram: A Sequel to Sweet Country

Production is underway on Warwick’s Thornton’s Wolfram: A Sequel to Sweet Country with major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screen Territory, National Indigenous Television (NITV), Screen NSW and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund.

Paradise City Sales (formerly Memento International) will introduce the film to international buyers at Cannes, while Dark Matter will handle Australia and New Zealand distribution.

Directed and lensed by multi-award-winning Warwick Thornton, the script is written by Sweet Country’s writers Steven McGregor and David Tranter. Producers are David Jowsey and Greer Simpkin from esteemed Australian production company Bunya Productions (Sweet Country, The Drover’s Wife, Limbo) along with Co-Producers Drew Bailey (June Again) and David Tranter (Sweet Country). Executive Producers are Cecilia Ritchie (The Drover’s Wife) and Kurt Royen (Audrey).

After winning the Special Jury Prize in Venice Competition and the Platform Competition Award at Toronto International Film Festival, Sweet Country played in more than 50 festivals (winning 20 prizes along the way) and was sold to more than 70 territories across the world. The film was awarded Best Film at the AACTAs, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, and the AWGIEs, among dozens of international awards.

Set some four years after the events of Sweet Country, the film pulls another thread of David Tranter’s Alyawarra family history, extending and deepening the story world by taking the perspective of the women and children of the family, anchored by matriarch Pansy, played by the exceptional Deborah Mailman (The New Boy, Total Control, Boy Swallows Universe). Where Sweet Country was a film about justice, Wolfram: A Sequel to Sweet Country is about family.

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Thomas M. Wright (Sleeping Dogs, The Stranger, Barkskins) will reprise his role as Mick Kennedy with the now 18-year-old Philomac played by Pedrea Jackson (Sweet As, Blueback), joined by cast including Errol Shand (The Clearing), Joe Bird (Talk To Me), John Howard (Mad Max : Fury Road), Aidan Du Chiem (Last Days of The Space Age), Ferdinand Hoang (Jasper Jones), Jason Chong (Little Monsters) and Matt Nable (Riddick). Further returning cast are Luka May Glynn-Cole (Dark Place) as Olive, Anni Finsterer (Thou Shalt Not Steal) who played Nell, Gibson John (Territory) in the role of Archie and Natassia Gorey Furber (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) as Lizzie.

Wolfram will mirror the visceral tone and style of Sweet Country, lensed by one of Australia’s greatest cinematographers Warwick Thornton, and shot on the same locations near Alice Springs where the sets for the fictional town of Henry from the original film still stand. The film is working closely with the Arrernte Traditional Owners led by elder Theresa Ellis.

Editor is Nick Meyers (Sweet Country, The New Boy), casting director is Anousha Zarkesh (Sweet Country, The New Boy), production design by Michael Leon (The New Boy), costume design by Heather Wallace (Sweet Country, The New Boy), hair and makeup design by John Logue (Mystery Road).

“David Tranter’s family story is also my family’s story. My great grandmother and her daughters worked the Hatches Creek mines for whitefellas. Now a truth will come and it’s called Wolfram,” says Thornton. 

Producers David Jowsey and Greer Simpkin, Bunya Productions said, “The truth-telling legacy of Sweet Country had a profound impact on audiences all around the world, and we cannot wait to tell more of this family’s frontier experiences as we delve back into its world. The unparalleled directorial stewardship of Warwick Thornton will bring to life the exquisite and psychologically affecting portraits of the characters created in David Tranter and Stephen McGregor’s script.”

Warwick’s Thornton’s Wolfram: A Sequel to Sweet Country is a Bunya Production with major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screen Territory and National Indigenous Television, with support from Screen NSW and Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund. Post, digital and visual effects supported by Screen NSW. International sales by Paradise City Sales, ANZ distribution by Dark Matter.

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