Berlinale 2026: Warwick Thornton’s ‘Wolfram’ – Dusty Tale of Survival

by Alex Billington
February 23, 2026

One of the most gorgeously-shot films from the 2026 Berlin Film Festival is this drama from Australia titled Wolfram. This is no surprise for fans of director Warwick Thornton or anyone familiar with his work – he has been making gorgeously-shot films for years, ever since his feature debut Samson and Delilah originally premiered in 2009. Wolfram is yet another gritty, tough western tale of humanity set in the dusty Outback of Australia. Technically it’s set in the “same universe” as Thornton’s 2017 film Sweet Country, but because this isn’t some Marvel movie with multiverses and different “universes” to hop back & forth from, let’s just say it takes place in the same Australian past as his other films. Wolfram is once again also about racism – depicting how brutally racist White Australians were (still are?) towards Black Indigenous people. It even shows slavery and child labor and all these awful things happening. However, thankfully the film’s narrative transcends all of that to focus on a trio of young Aboriginal boys on the run trying to stay alive in the 1900s. It’s another dusty tale of survival amidst the hardships and horrors of the Australian Outback, while the settlers try to strike it rich mining for gold or wolframite (an iron, manganese, tungstate mineral).

Wolfram features a screenplay written by David Tranter & Steven McGregor; and it’s directed by Aboriginal Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton as his fourth feature film so far (following The New Boy in 2023 most recently). Based on a real story and set in 1932, the film centers on a mother longing for the return of her stolen children. Highlighting the exploitation of Indigenous Australian child labor at the Hatches Creek wolfram field, a tungsten mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. Deborah Mailman stars as Pansy, the mother, along with Pedrea Jackson co-starring as Philomac, a young Aboriginal boy who is working as a slave for a miner – they were both in Sweet Country as well playing the same characters. The first half of the film introduces another annoying Australian man who comes to this dusty mining town with his young apprentice in tow. It’s obvious right from his arrival that this guy is a racist asshole who is going to stir up some trouble and do some horrible things. Alas, for the first half of the film we have to sit uncomfortably watching him do just that. Thankfully the film transitions from his story into the story of these three kids on the run, trying to keep themselves safe in a wild world full of awful people. The first half is a bit of a slog to get through, but the second half is much stronger and the emotional core of the film starts to come together.

There’s only so much misery cinema I can take without getting a bit tired of watching horrible people do bad things to other people. While it is of course necessary to tell these stories, cinema is overflowing with all that is terrible out there, and seriously lacking in more uplifting, hopeful, empowering stories that shows us that there is good in this world (and it’s worth fighting for, as Samwise once said). I am relieved that Wolfram switches things up in the second half and allows us to feel connected with these kids, following them as they begin to outsmart and sneak their way around bad men. They strike up a connection with a pair of Chinese miners and thankfully these guys are quite nice, too. The best part about Wolfram is the cinematography (shot by Thornton himself), featuring dusty vistas and spectacular sunset silhouette shots, all captured in glorious old school extreme widescreen framing. Thornton is an especially cinematic filmmaker who makes great films when he combines his visual prowess with a good story. And a real good story needs to be more than just here’s racist White men doing bad things, even if that is an accurate representation of Australia’s past (and present). It does seem with each new film he makes, Thornton is only getting better and better. And nonetheless, his fully immersive, emotionally authentic, mesmerizing films are always worth watching.

Alex’s Berlinale 2026 Rating: 6.5 out of 10
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