Melbourne, 10 years after a “collapse”:  no civil order,  the only currency is the American dollar,  streets are populated by soldiers and citizens crucified; the scenery is wild and the guns lay down the rules.

In a bar, located in a worthy road of a post-apocalyptic scenario, Eric (Guy Pearce) is robbed of his car by a gang that crashed their truck.

Willing to do anything to repossess his car, Eric takes off after the gang.

In a shootout, not far from the bar, one of the members of the band, Henry (Scoot McNairy) has left behind his younger brother Rey (Robert Pattinson, here another article about him).

Severely wounded but thirsty for revenge, Rey joins forces with Eric to take him to the hideout of the gang.

Thus began a nightmare journey in which the two will build a bond of trust and mutual loyalty.

Four years after the family thriller The Animal Kingdom, presented out of competition at the Rome Film Festival in 2010 and labeled on page 82 of the catalog as a  The Godfather Australian retelling, David Michôd and Guy Pearce return to work together in an Aussie Western movie equally violent called The Rover (watch the trailer)

The interpretation of Guy Pearce is brilliant and Robert Pattinson ( now with two movies in post-production and two in pre-production), left the role of the teenage vampire that brought him to fame (and for those like me who had the good fortune of work with him in Italy during the filming of New Moon will remain a wonderful memory about him) gives an excellent and mature interpretation as well as that demonstrated in Remember Me in 2010 and far more convincing than that of Bel Ami.

The Twilight’s star, arriving at the BFI for the British preview screening , flooded with hundreds of teenagers on the hunt for an autograph and a picture, said: “I’m curious to know whether people who liked the ‘Twilight’ movies will come and see things like ‘The Rover’. Hopefully they’ll enjoy it. I try to do ambitious projects but I don’t know if people are going to like them. You just try to do things which are challenging and hopefully people will appreciate that”.

Antony Partos, with his amazing soundtrack opens a door directly into the new Melbourne and he lulls us during the entire movie.

And, although in recent years the street  post-apocalyptic movies are becoming standard on the agenda, the new work by David Michôd deserves to be seen at least once.

The Rover, in Uk cinemas from August 15th.

“If you don’t learn to fight, your death is going to come real soon”