David Wenham – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

FARAWAY DOWNS – Review by Susan Granger

January 10, 2024February 1, 2024 Susan Granger Aboriginal, australian films, Baz Luhrmann, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, disney, Hugh Jackman, hulu, limited series, nicole kidman, Stolen Generations, Torres Strait Islander, Ursula Yovich

Do you recall a 2008 Baz Luhrmann film called Australia? Starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, I found it an exciting, epic adventure but – at the box-office – it went nowhere, perhaps because it touched too superficially on that country’s notorious Aboriginal race issue. So resourceful Luhrmann recently re-edited it into a six-episode limited series called Faraway Downs, telling a compelling tale as viewed through the eyes of Nullah (Brandon Walters), an enchanting half-Aboriginal outcast child – and adding nearly an hour of never-before-seen footage.

Reviews

FARAWAY DOWNS – Review by Elisabetta Bianchini

October 21, 2023January 13, 2026 Elisabetta Bianchini australian series, Brandon Walters, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, disney, Faraway Downs, Hugh Jackman, nicole kidman

While filming Elvis, with the production halted after Tom Hanks’ COVID-19 diagnosis, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann went back to the more than two million feet of film he shot for the 2008 film Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and reimagined the film as a series, titled Faraway Downs. Both Australia and Faraway Downs follows an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman), who travels to Australia to pressure her husband to sell a cattle ranch, Faraway Downs. When she discovers her husband has died, she teams up with a cattle drover, who simply goes by the name The Drover (Jackman), to protect the ranch.