Film review: ‘WOLFRAM’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Warwick Thornton is arguably Australia’s finest contemporary film director. With works such as Sampson and Delilah and Sweet Country he has crafted unflinching, gritty, yet poetic and masterfully constructed films celebrating First Nations Peoples while laying bare the often brutal prejudice inflicted on them. His latest film, Wolfram is a sequel of sorts to Sweet Country as Philomac (this time played by Pedrea Jackson) the young aboriginal man who featured in that film, is central to this story. While spending more time in the world Thornton created is a welcome prospect, did Sweet Country really need a sequel? Partly because it covers similar territory but also because of uneven pacing, underdevelopment of some characters and a fragmented plot, Wolfram isn’t the revelation that Sweet Country was but it’s still a potent and confronting piece of cinema.
Set in 1932 and based on real events, the film establishes a collection of story threads that slowly intertwine. One examines the little told issue of Indigenous child labour in the outback as Aboriginal children Max (Hazel Jackson) and Kid (Eli Hart) are forced to labour in a small Tungsten (aka Wolfram) mine owned by the abusive Billy (Matt Nable). They have been forcibly removed from their mother (Deborah Mailman) who exists in a kind of wordless trauma and searches for them leaving mementos in the scrubland for them to find. In a parallel story, Philomac now a young adult, lives in servitude to the repellent bullying Kennedy (Thomas M. Wright) in his remote desert shack. Entering this world like a malevolent spirit is the repulsive murderous Casey (Kiwi Erroll Shand) and his taciturn young offsider Frank (Joe Bird who recalls Barry Keoghan). When Max, Kid and Philomac’s paths cross, their attempt to escape their enslavement leads to a deadly pursuit across the desert that also brings the trio in contact with a benevolent Chinese man Shi (Ferdinand Hoang).
Thornton renders this world in the red haze of a desert dust storm. It’s a brutal often remorseless environment where little value is placed on life, especially those of non-white people. Few filmmakers can capture the imposing vastness of the Australian outback as strikingly as Warwick Thornton. His vistas of sprawling scrubland are as memorable as Nic Roeg’s in Walkabout.
The impact of Thornton’s visual artistry and the film’s themes of prejudice and inhumanity are diluted slightly, though, by the film’s meandering script. The fragmented story takes too long to find a direction, the film is almost entirely build-up and the cyclic nature of the plot make it feels repetitive. Still, there is a sense of the film establishing a tighter grip on the viewer as it builds to its conclusion which gives it a pervading sense of menace.
Thornton also infuses the story with moving references to contemporary issues such as the psychological impact on the Stolen Generations and the promise of Australia’s diversifying culture. Additionally, he weaves in a number of religious references at times giving the film an ominous Old Testament feel.
As in Sweet Country, the cast are remarkable with a powerful nuanced performance from Pedrea and extremely sympathetic turns from the youngsters Jackson and Hart. The villains played by Erroll Shand and Joe Bird are also superbly obnoxious. Deborah Mailman’s character Pansy, however, doesn’t quite work. By giving her minimal screen time and little dialogue, it seems Pansy was meant to be an ethereal grieving presence in the film but she just feels underdeveloped.
Wolfram is not the masterpiece of Sweet Country but it’s further evidence of Warwick Thornton’s striking artistic vision and potent social conscience.
Nick’s rating: ***1/2
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Western.
Classification: M.
Director(s): Warwick Thornton.
Release date: 30th Apr 2026.
Running time: 100 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.