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More than 300 members of the cast and crew, and their families, have packed into the Alice Springs Cinema for a special cast preview of new feature film Sweet Country.
The award-winning period western by director Warwick Thornton tells the harrowing story of an Aboriginal stockman tried for the murder of a white station owner in the frontier era of the 1920s.
Producer David Jowsey said dozens of locals were employed as cast, crew and extras on the production which was filmed at Ooramina station, 30 kilometres south of Alice Springs, and parts of the West MacDonnell National Park.
With both cinemas at capacity, it was difficult to hear the film over the excited cheering of the audience as members of their family appeared on the screen.
Vanessa Davis, whose brother is lead actor Hamilton Morris, said the film meant a lot to the cast members' large, extended families.
"It's really a shock to see someone from the central Australian region become an actor and be in a five-star film," she said.
"It's huge for families around here to see that happen."
Truth needs to be told say cast members
Warlpiri actor Hamilton Morris, who plays the accused Aboriginal stockman Sam Kelly, lives in the Aboriginal community of Nyrripi, 440km from Alice Springs.
In his first feature film role he plays a character who kills a white station owner in self defence and is then tried for murder.
"This movie shows how people used to live and how they were treated," Mr Kelly said.
"It is very important for the whole of Australia to see, not to be kept hidden away, but to tell the truth of what really happened in those days."
Other local cast in Sweet Country include identical twins Tremayne and Trevon Doolan who share the role of the young station hand Philomac.
The boys live at Sandy Bore, an outstation 120km south-west of Alice Springs, where they travel three hours to get to and from school each day.
Their grandmother, Arrernte elder Margaret Kemarre 'MK' Turner said it was an exciting experience for them.
"The film crew went around to every school, they were looking 'round for identical twins, and then they went to Yipirinya School and they found these two, my grandsons," she said proudly.
Mrs Turner is also related to actor Natassia Gorey-Furber, who plays the key role of Lizzie, Sam Kelly's wife.
Fellow cast member Gibson John plays the character of Archie, the Aboriginal tracker, and lives in the Aboriginal community of Santa Teresa, 85km south-east of Alice Springs.
"It's history that's never been told … it has to be shown about those days, what happened to the old people," he said.
Mr John, who had never acted before, said he hoped his achievement in the film will inspire the younger members of his family.
"It makes them really proud," he said.
"I'd like to say 'if I can do it, you young fellas can do it too'."
Film likely to galvanise Australia Day debate
Sweet Country has already won seven international awards, including the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival and the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Its debut comes more than nine years on from director Warwick Thornton's Sampson and Delilah, another multi-award-winning "survival love story" about the unbearable isolation and racial discrimination felt by Aboriginal teenagers living in remote central Australia.
Producer David Jowsey said he hoped Sweet Country would contribute to the national conversation about changing the date of Australia Day.
"Warwick Thornton and [co-writer] David Tranter, our Indigenous spokespeople on the film, they really want to have that conversation," he said.
"They don't want to railroad people, but certainly it's a good conversation to have because [the film] does embrace the idea of what happened in the past. It's an acknowledgement of how our country came to be."
Sweet Country opens in Australian cinemas on January 25.
Topics: western-films, film-movies, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, australia-day, alice-springs-0870