Make no mistake: Vincent Ward’s River Queen is made of seductive, intensely ambitious stuff, a film as unfairly received as it has been unconsciously yearned for. But just imagine for a moment colonial New Zealand in the hands of a devilish Nick Cave, blazoned with violence, anarchy, and disconcerting beauty. A brutalised River Queen of sorts, The Proposition turns 19th century Australia into an outback inferno: it deafens us with gunfire, bulldozes us with the rape and pillage of the indigenous, and wallops us with its frequent savagery and gore.

Scripted by Cave, the film’s “proposition” invites captured bandit Charlie (Guy Pearce) to turn in his older, more homicidal brother Arthur (crazed figurehead of the wanted Burns clan) to lawman Stanley (Ray Winstone) in exchange for his weaker sibling Mike (set for the gallows). Bearded and gaunt, Pearce casts a Christ-like Jodorowskian figure on horseback; as he makes his ascent into the rocky outcrops of Queensland, the rest of his “family” emerge – a ragtag bunch of outcasts as brutish as those in The Hills Have Eyes. As Mike is viciously lashed in prison, the Burns plot his rescue and avengement, with the rape and murder of Stanley and his precious colonial wife (Emily Watson) on the cards.

Exceedingly graphic, the film makes headway towards its bloody high noon, but manages to punctuate the extreme with moments of stasis and calm. The violence – and I mean violence – is no less than barbaric, but takes appropriate cues from the aesthetic of Takeshi Kitano by perforating its peaceful lulls with carnage of abrupt and shocking nature. It’s a rare combination of punk revolt and self-control from John Hillcoat, a music video director of all things (with singles by Depeche Mode and Cave to his name). His meta-western is both visceral and incandescent, recalling in equal parts The Wild Bunch and Days of Heaven, while extracting the primordial, edge-of-the-world genesis of Australia’s hellish yet magnificent frontier. Cave meanwhile serenades us with an instrumental score of soothing tones and disturbingly serene ballads. Sublime, ferocious; it's one of the best thus far this year.—Tim Wong