A switchblade in her cleavage, a rifle on her back, and a dog at her side, the woman stalks the ridges of an alpine land she owns but is not hers, hunting. Her family is hanging on with ragged nails to a living, and risks losing their home. The skins of wild creatures, a state bounty, may save the woman’s own. Meanwhile a dingo, separated from her pack and searching for her pups, has her scent, and salivates at the meat she carries. She once ran with humans. But that was long ago.

Blazey Best, Anthony Yangoyan and Sandy Greenwood in Dogged. Photograph © Brett Boardman

Over one long, tar-black night, the woman, the dingo and the dog will confront each other and common dangers. In the hills are savage drunken men, hunting in the dark by spotlight, the fire of their guns echoing closer. They will find the pure land seamed with poison. And they will face the bitter cold. But survival means different things to them, and so does what threatens them. Whether they can help each other, exist together in a non-violent way, is moot. As the dingo says, there...