‘Wolfram’ Review: Warwick Thornton’s Brutal Outback Western Is A Modern Australian Classic – Berlin Film Festival

Black lives don’t matter in Warwick Thornton’s fiercely original outback western, a surprisingly emotional genre piece that simmers with menace and doesn’t let up until the bloody finale. Saturated in the heatwave colors of Australia’s scorching Red Center, with its searing blue skies and bright orange sands, Wolfram makes the grim, lawless backwater of Wake […] ‘Wolfram’ Bunya Productions Black lives don’t matter in Warwick Thornton’s fiercely original outback western, a surprisingly emotional genre piece that simmers with menace and doesn’t let up until the bloody finale. Saturated in the heatwave colors of Australia’s scorching Red Center, with its searing blue skies and bright orange sands, Wolfram makes the grim, lawless backwater of Wake in Fright seem positively cosmopolitan by comparison. The title is another word for tungsten, which in 1930s Australia is more valuable than gold, and in scenes reminiscent of There Will Be Blood we see pioneer Billy (Matt Nable) in the process of mining it with the help of two young children, Max and Kid. Billy is a tough taskmaster, sending Max down a hole in the ground to chisel out the precious metal, a tall task for a minor. When Max comes up almost empty handed, Billy loses his temper (“What the f*ck have you been doing down there?”) and breaks out the dynamite, a portent of the film’s explosive capacity to erupt into violence. Related Stories Reviews Berlin Film Festival 2026: Read All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews