Australia, 1902. One year since Federation. The nation is a sickly child, as yet unaware of its weakness. It looks at the fertile land in the south and the east and sees a playground for adventure and prosperity. It is deceived.
Such is the pessimistic historical vision offered by filmmaker Kriv Stenders in his new film, a psychological thriller cum Australian western, Lucky Country.
'A lot of middle class people upped stumps from their city lives to do these tree changes, and thought they could farm the land', says Stenders. 'It
was one of the tragedies [screenwriter] Andy Cox discovered ... these
people coming out to this harsh place thinking they could tame it or
control it, when in fact it was controlling them.'
Lucky Country centres on one such misguided tree-changer, Nat (Aden Young). Nat is a widower, and sole parent to his teenage
daughter Sarah (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) and young son Tom (Toby
Wallace). He is increasingly desperate, and questionably sane amid the unforgiving landscape.
This is not just a period drama. It's a fable for our modern times. 'Really, nothing's changed', says Stenders. 'You only have to look at the floods
and the bushfires of recent times to realise the landscape controls us,
we don't control it. Our presence on this land is tenuous — it has been
and it still is.'
Lucky Country seems a bleak assessment of human nature.
The arrival of three strangers (Pip Miller, Neil Pigot and Eamon Farren) tests the mettle and the loyalties of all three family members. Especially when they learn one of the men has discovered gold. Gold fever tinges characters' eyes. Greed and self-interest reign.
'I wouldn't say it's bleak', says Stenders. 'It's realistic. The film is a morality tale. It's about the evil men are capable of. We set out to make something entertaining and engaging, with a lot of betrayal and subterfuge and psychological cat and mouse games. That requires a certain aggressive tone and a certain darkness.'
The film is dark, but it is also far more lush and epic than Stenders' previous, low-budget drama Boxing Day.
'We shot it outside of Adelaide at Mt Bold. I was looking for somewhere where I could hide the camera crew, hide the trucks, and shoot in any direction, using the methodology we used on Boxing Day, which was putting the camera into that world and following the characters inside that world rather than looking at them from a distance.
'Westerns are timeless, and