Cirrus@Austlit

'High Ground, the long-awaited second feature from Stephen Maxwell Johnson (Yolngu Boy), opens with an extraordinary image: a vista shot of Nimbuwarr, a sacred rock in Arnhem Land, from high above, as a red sun declines behind it and insects buzz on the soundtrack like a piece by Alva Noto. The best drone shot in recent Australian cinema (and Christ knows there’s been enough of them), it’s also the only one that actually adds something to the story; mesmerising, almost otherworldly, it functions as a codicil for the narrative that follows. Man’s capacity for evil is vast, it seems to say. But this country is vaster still.' (Introduction)