High Ground

High Ground is a 2020 Australian film directed by Stephen Maxwell Johnson, based on historical events that took place in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, set just after World War I. It has variously been called a revisionist Western and meat pie Western. However it tells of a true historical event in a fictionalised manner but with very close attention to and respect for Aboriginal culture. The film premiered at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival on 23 February 2020, with the Australian premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival later that year, and theatrical release in Australia on 28 January 2021. Plot After fighting in World War I as a sniper, Travis, now a policeman in northern Australia, loses control of an operation that results in the massacre of a group of Yolngu people in Arnhem Land in 1919. After his superiors insist on burying the truth, Travis leaves in disgust, only to be forced back twelve years later to hunt down Baywara, an Aboriginal warrior whose attacks on new settlers are causing havoc. When Travis recruits mission-raised Gutjuk, the only known massacre survivor, as his tracker, the truth of the past is revealed and Travis becomes the hunted. Cast Jacob Junior Nayinggul as Gutjuk Simon Baker as Travis Callan Mulvey as Eddy Jack Thompson as Moran Caren Pistorius as Claire Ryan Corr as Braddock Aaron Pedersen as Walter Sean Mununggurr as Baywara Witiyana Marika as Grandfather Darrpa Esmerelda Marimowa as Gulwirri Maximillian Johnson as Bruce David McMahon as Court