'Wolfram' Review: Ravishingly Bleak Follow-Up to 'Sweet Country'

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Nine years after his acclaimed film 'Sweet Country,' director Warwick Thornton returns with 'Wolfram,' a slow-burn drama set in the early 1930s that follows two heartless 'whitefella' outsiders who ride into the fictional town of Henry, forcing a charismatic 'half-breed' man and two resourceful Aboriginal child miners to fend for themselves against the colonizers' exploitation of indigenous people and land.

Why it matters

Thornton's cinematic universe is based on actual history, where indigenous Australians could be 'claimed' by white settlers through violence, and then forced to mine valuable tungsten ore known as wolfram from their own ancestral lands. The film honors the Alyawarre tribal roots and Chinese-Australian heritage of co-writer David Tranter.

The details

In 'Wolfram,' two ruthless white outsiders ride into the fictional town of Henry, disrupting the lives of a charismatic 'half-breed' man and two young Aboriginal child miners. The film explores how these indigenous characters are forced to unify and defend themselves against the colonizers' exploitation of their people and land, as the white settlers use violence to 'claim' the indigenous residents and compel them to extract valuable tungsten ore known as wolfram from the Aboriginal ground.

• The film is set in the early 1930s.