Nitram is the nickname of a lonely and disturbed young man, a misfit with no empathy. His peers both fear and mock him. His parents are at a loss to understand their difficult offspring and find help in neither health services nor a society that allows for firearm purchase. He lives a life of frustration until he unexpectedly finds a close friend in a reclusive heiress. However, when that relationship meets a tragic end, Nitram begins a slow descent that leads to disaster.
"I have felt and seen the effect of the Port Arthur massacre on that community. It’s very difficult for people to talk about. There is a wound that is so deep. I would never have been able to tell this story if we had been showing the shootings. We were interrogating each other all the time, going ‘is this the right way to do it?’ because we knew how sensitive it was. Typically, in an anti-gun film, you would see from the point of view of a lawyer standing in front of a courtroom. I wanted people to walk in the shoes of this person for a while so when he walks into the gun shop, you think ‘yes, this is why we need gun control.’" (Justin Kurzel)
Justin Kurzel
Born in Gawler, Australia, in 1974. A director and screenwriter whose darkly poetic, bitter narratives have featured prominently in Australian cinema since the beginning of his career. His works, including his debut film, The Snowtown Murders, are marked by a cold, occasionally uncanny filmmaking style. Macbeth (2015), starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, was a major breakthrough in his career.