Port Arthur Drama 'Nitram' Will Be Available to Stream Via Stan in November
Caleb Landry Jones won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor prize for playing the haunting Australian film's lead role.
As happens each and every year, more than a few Australian films will hit screens big and small throughout 2021. More than a few have already actually, given that the year is in its home stretch. Some have proven exceptional, others have earned the exact opposite description and plenty fall somewhere in the middle. But only one happens to be the best Aussie film of the year, as well as the homegrown title that's been grabbing attention since it was first announced in 2020.
That movie: Nitram. Read the movie's moniker backwards, and you'll see why it started garnering plenty of notice before anyone had even seen it. Now, Aussies are getting the chance to watch the movie themselves — with the film currently screening in Australian cinemas where they're open, and then heading to streaming service Stan from Wednesday, November 24.
When it was initially announced last year, the film sparked debate about whether any feature should explore this traumatic chapter of Australia's past. Now that the end result is here, it's both intense and exceptional, as well as extremely careful about its subject matter. The latter shouldn't come as a surprise given that Nitram reunites Snowtown and True Story of the Kelly Gang filmmaker Justin Kurzel with screenwriter Shaun Grant, who penned both movies. With their two earlier collaborations, Kurzel and Grant amassed an impressive history when it comes to tackling the nation's darker and thornier moments, and that doesn't change here.
Only ever referring to the gunman responsible for murdering 35 people and wounding 23 others via the movie's moniker, Nitram steps through the lead up to those events in Port Arthur 25 years ago. Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) plays the eponymous figure, who lives with his mother (Judy Davis, The Dressmaker) and father (Anthony LaPaglia, Below), and finds a friend in a reclusive heiress named Helen (Essie Davis, Babyteeth). The film isn't specifically about the tragedy of April 28 and 29, 1996, instead focusing on the time leading up to those dates, but every Australian knows where the story goes from there.
Earlier in 2021, Nitram became the first Aussie feature to play in the Cannes Film Festival's coveted competition in a decade. It won Jones the prestigious fest's Best Actor prize, too. And you can expect to hear more about it again — and for the movie to collect more shiny prizes — as Australia's film awards season pops up at the end of the year.
Check out the trailer below:
Nitram is currently screening in Australian cinemas where they're open, and will be available to stream via Stan from Wednesday, November 24. Read our full review.
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