Australians own more guns today than they did in 1996. That year, the countryâs largest mass shooting â the Port Arthur Massacre â led the government to swiftly adopt landmark gun control legislation, recalling and destroying 650,000 guns from residents. That rise in Australian gun ownership is the catalyst behind director Justin Kurzelâs latest film, âNitram.â The film, which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, was greeted with controversy when Kurzel first announced it would follow the Port Arthur Massacre. At times excruciating, at others gripping, the drama follows the titular serial killer as he grows up in a suburb of Tasmania with his soon-to-be-suicidal father and an overbearing, cold mother who has trouble accepting Nitram as her own son. Through years of his parents and peers bullying him for his mental illness, audiences watch as Nitram becomes further and further alienated by society. And because the audience knows exactly where this story is going to end, every time Nitram is inconvenienced or in a position where he could easily take power, Kurzel gives us a chilling pause â a space for our expectations and anxieties to take over.