Warwick Thornton's award winning drama SWEET COUNTRY opens in Toronto on April 13

SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS TO RELEASE

WARWICK THORNTON'S AWARD WINNING 

DRAMA

SWEET COUNTRY

IN TORONTO ON APRIL 13, 2018

AT THE TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX

 ** WINNER - Platform - 2017 Toronto International Film Festival **

** WINNER - Special Jury Prize - 2017 Venice Film Festival **

** Official Selection - 2018 Sundance Film Festival **

"5 stars... This is fiercely powerful storytelling"

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

"A drama of imposing breadth and emotional depth"

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

"Graceful, soulful, quietly incendiary...a furious slavery narrative of sorts,

and one that should resonate with audiences far beyond Australia"

Guy Lodge, Variety

"Thornton’s ravishing indigenous western offers a quietly blistering portrait of prejudice

that is set in the past but speaks clearly and passionately about Australia’s present"

Sarah Ward, Screen Daily

Warwick Thornton's critically acclaimed drama SWEET COUNTRY had its world premiere at the 2017 Venice Film Festival where Warwick won a Special Jury Prize. The film then went on to win the coveted Platform prize at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival as well as winning Best Film at the Adelaide Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The film most recently screened at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

SWEET COUNTRY draws on the conventions of the American Western to explore the genesis of contemporary Australian racism and the generational neglect of Aboriginal people. It’s 1929 on the vast, desert-like Eastern Arrernte Nation lands that are now known as the Central Australian outback. Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris), a middle-aged Aboriginal man, works the land of a kind preacher, Fred Smith (Sam Neill). After an ill-tempered bully arrives in town and Kelly kills him in self-defense, he and his wife, Lizzie, go on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down.

Release Date:                      April 6, 2018 - New York (IFC Center)

                                              April 6, 2018 - Los Angeles (The Landmark)

                                              April 13, 2018 - Toronto (TIFF Bell Lightbox)

                                              **Additional cities to follow**           

Directed by:                         Warwick Thornton

Written by:                           Steven McGregor, David Tranter

Cast:                                     Sam Niell, Bryan Brown, Hamilton Morris, Ewen Leslie

Genre:                                   Drama

Specs:                                  113 min

Distributor:                           Samuel Goldwyn Films