SWEET RIVER
Australia, 2020, 100 minutes, Colour.
Lisa Kay, Martin Sacks, Genevieve Lemon, Eddie Baroo, Chris Haywood.
Directed by Justin Mc Millan.
Sweet River is about a mother whose son has been killed by a serial killer but whose body has not been found. She returns to the location where the crime took place, her grieving, her searching for the body, the criticisms of the police. She is played by British actress, Lisa Kay.
The title does not do justice to the story. There is a river, there is a drainage creek. However, a body drowns in the creek. Children die in a bus accident in the river. It is not sweet. (The vivid locations were filmed in northern New South Wales near Byron Bay and Tweed Heads.). The film recreates the atmosphere of the town, a huge mill, sackings, the local pub and the men drinking. There are also the neighbours played by Martin Sacks and Genevieve Lemon, helping the woman in her grief – but with sadness and secrets of their own.
The film has touches of paranormal as well as touches of ghostly presence, especially the children in the canefields, one in particular, who seems to haunt the mother.
The mother believes her son is buried in the canefields but they have not been set alight because of people’s livelihoods. However, she does set them alight – and the grave is found.
The film is not particularly striking as a horror film – rather, it is a portrait of a grieving mother, townspeople, with the touch of the ghostly.
1. The title? The river? The irony of sweet? The death of the children?
2. The northern New South Wales setting, the town, the streets, the pub, homes outside the town, the canefields, the creek, the river? The musical score?
3. Lipton, at the bar, telling his story, the mill, loss of his job, driving, the crash, drawn into the cane, found dead? The implications of horror and the touch of the paranormal?
4. Hanna, driving to the house, locked, help from John and Eleanor? Her coming to the house, the past, the death of her son, the search without success, the accused? Her clash with the police and saying they did not do a good job? Her visits to the bar, Troy and his drugs, Tom the bus driver?
5. At home, the newspapers, the photos? Her memories and imagination? Separation from her husband? Her headphones and listening to the programs for healing?
6. The meal with John and Eleanor, her unusual behaviour, the death of their daughter, her grief? Later understanding that she saw her daughter, going out into the canefields, the visions of the children? John and his caution?
7. Memory of the killer, his walking the canefields? The revelation of his relationship with John? John and his secret? Losing his son, and her losing her son?
8. The red lights in the memorial of the dead? The death of the children in the bus, Tom and his survival, Max on the road, his warning, his being drowned? The children and the haunting? Max and his wanting Hanna? Hanna and her encounters with Violet?
9. Violet and the site in the canefields, the shoelace?
10. John, his collapse, the issue of the burning of the canefields, people’s livelihoods, not finding the bodies? Hanna taking the flamethrower, setting the canefields alight? The police and the search, finding the grave?
11. The children at rest? Hanna and her leaving, the farewell to Eleanor?
