The Sun Comes Up On The Sundowner

by FilmInk Staff

Gifted and tenacious writer/director Matthew Holmes has commenced shooting on his sixth feature film, The Sundowner.

Getting a film up and running in Australia is no easy feat, which certainly makes local writer director Matthew Holmes something of a rarity, and one to be cherished. Working largely outside the traditional funding systems, this bold talent has already helmed five feature films, and he’s now rolling on his sixth. On top of that, Holmes rarely takes the easy route, crafting big films rich in period detail: his second feature, 2007’s Twin Rivers, followed the epic journey of two brothers across Australia, while his third film, 2017’s The Legend of Ben Hall, was a thrilling, beautifully realised, guns-blazing epic detailing the life of the eponymous bushranger. While Holmes dialled it back a little for 2022’s The Cost (a highly impressive low budget thriller), he pushed himself to the edge once again for his upcoming release Fear Below, which saw the director make the bold move of shooting largely on water for this highly anticipated killer shark flick.

Now, ahead of the release of Fear Below on July 2, Matthew Holmes is back to a cinematic wide canvas once again for his next feature, The Sundowner. South Australian actor Joshua Jaeger (who appeared in Holmes’ Twin Rivers and The Legend of Ben Hall) stars as the eponymous war-scarred swagman, who gradually becomes a desperate and dangerous fugitive during the course of the film. Set against the bleak historical backdrop of The Great Depression and the great beauty of the harsh Australian outback, the film will take audiences on an incredible journey of injustice and sadness but also one of great hope.

Joshua Jaeger will be backed in The Sundowner by an impressive ensemble of established and emerging talent including Arthur Angel (Red Dog), Jacob Junior Nayinggul (Fear Below), Monika Lapka (Caliburn), Nick Launchbury (Going South), Damon Hunter (The Cost), Freya Tingley (Time Addicts), Adam Willson (The Legend of Ben Hall), Brendan Cooney (With the Pines), Terry Rogers (Escape from Pretoria) and Darren Holmes (Twin Rivers), alongside rising local talents Will Hodgson, Connor Pullinger, and Nicholas Champion.

Written by Matthew Holmes and Aidan Phelan, The Sundowner will be shot on location across regional South Australia including Bower, Rockleigh, Yalpara, Burra, Black Rock and the Old Tailem Town Historical Village, making use of the region’s breathtaking terrain and historic buildings. The Sundowner is being produced by Two Tone Pictures in collaboration with Producers Felipe Teplitsky of GrandLine Motion Pictures and Russell Cunningham of RLC Motion Picture Entertainment, along with EP Joshua Little of Iconic Road Productions.

“The Sundowner will be a brooding and atmospheric film that blends elements of the western, crime noir and survival drama elements into a distinctly Australian fable,” says Matthew Holmes. “As one of Australia’s most enduring archetypes, the swagman represents the resilient Aussie battler, the lone outsider. I wanted to explore the darker, more complex underside to this archetype, giving audiences an unflinching journey into the soul of a man broken by the trauma of war, the shame of poverty, and pushed to an inevitable reckoning by societal injustice.”

Stay tuned for more on The Sundowner, scheduled for release in late 2026.