Review: High Ground (SFF Summer Season) High Ground highlights Australia s history of injustice with a necessary harshness. Courtesy of Playtime January 21, 2021 High Ground, Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s first release since 2001, is a film essential to the telling of colonial Australia’s unforgiving brutality. With a strong emphasis on narrative and impeccable cinematography, the film is jarring in its ability to move between the serene and horrifying. Despite the obvious and unquestionably broader impacts of white settlement, the microcosm of High Ground, with its few characters and few key settings, rewards viewers with a rich and character-focused tale. High Ground will be released in Australian theatres on January 28.