Badland Rising is a 2026 Australian action-crime film directed by Blair Moore, starring Nathan Phillips as a lone driver whose routine road trip across rural Australia becomes a harrowing race against two relentless and unpredictable pursuers. Tense, stripped-back, and built on pure survival instinct.
What is Badland Rising about?
A man sets out on what should be a long but uneventful drive home — nearly twenty hours of Australian highway stretching ahead of him. He has no reason to suspect danger. But two men are tracking him, and their interest in him is anything but casual. When the nature of their pursuit finally becomes clear, the protagonist must shed every assumption about who he is and what he is capable of. The film keeps its focus tight: one road, one target, two hunters. Each passing kilometer narrows the margin between escape and catastrophe. Moore strips the thriller down to bone and gristle, letting the landscape itself become a character — vast, indifferent, and offering nowhere to hide.
About the cast
Nathan Phillips anchors the film as the everyman protagonist, carrying most of the screen time largely in isolation. Robert Rabiah and Daniel Nelson appear as Vlad Ivanov and Igor, and the film's antagonists bring a volatile and unpredictable menace to the road. Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Aaron Glenane, Hannah Levien, Jake Ryan, and Steve Mouzakis round out a strong supporting ensemble under director Blair Moore's lean, pressure-cooker approach.
Context & significance
Road-survival thrillers have a deep tradition among diaspora viewers who relish genre filmmaking that trades spectacle for psychological tension. Badland Rising fits squarely in that vein — a lean Australian thriller that strips the genre back to its essentials: one person, an open road, and a threat that refuses to let go. For Persian-speaking audiences abroad who enjoy tight, well-crafted genre cinema from the English-speaking world, the film is available on K-Time with a full Persian dub, making it genuinely accessible without needing any prior familiarity with Australian slang or setting. The rural Australian backdrop gives the film a distinctive visual texture rarely seen on Persian-language platforms.
Watching Badland Rising on Ktime
Badland Rising is available now on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles. Watch on your browser, TV, or phone — no extra download required, no VPN needed, no geo-blocking. Subscription is flexible with no long-term commitment; cancel anytime.