Red Hill

Fresh-faced cop Shane Cooper (Kwanten) has transfered to the Outback town of Red Hill (pop. 120) to find peace and quiet for his pregnant wife. And in this backwater, dominated by its fiery, charismatic Sheriff (Bisley), he seems to have found them. But within hours the town is menaced by an approaching storm and an approaching psychopath, an Aboriginal tracker with a melted face called Jimmy Conway, who is on his way to kill everyone. Talk about bad timing.

Red Hill enjoyably transfers the conventions of the Western to modern Australia as we learn that all is not as it seems in the town. However, after an effective opening the plot loses its focus, spending too much time on political subtexts (Aboriginal dispossession) and an overly symbolic panther, when it should be fleshing out the conspiracy at the heart of the story. Much better is the atmospheric camerawork which makes great use of the threadbare town and surrounding landscape. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]