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The controversial American hit film Sound of Freedom, about a Homeland Security agent who quits his job to take on child traffickers, is headed for Australian cinemas.

The unheralded thriller has stormed to stunning box office success in the US – taking more than $US130 million ($191 million) in three weeks – after being released by self-described faith-based distributor Angel Studios.

While it tells a non-partisan story, the film has been championed by both mainstream conservatives and far-right figures including Steve Bannon and My Pillow proprietor Mike Lindell as well as followers of the QAnon movement.

Jim Caviezel in Sound of Freedom.Credit: Angel Studios

“The film has been a gift to exhibition and has dynamited the red flyover states and faith-based audience … who have been intrigued by the anti-child trafficking topic,” industry website Deadline Hollywood reported.

Written and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ, Person of Interest) as Tim Ballard, a real-life former Homeland Security agent who founded the charity Operation Underground Railroad to rescue children and women from sex traffickers.

It will be released in Australia by Icon Film Distribution on August 24.

“Since Sound of Freedom launched in the US, demand has been building around the world in dozens of regions and languages,” Angel Studios’ executive Jared Geesey said. “Child trafficking is a global issue and we hope to build on the incredible momentum here in the States and share the film’s powerful message worldwide.”

While its success has been overshadowed by the latest Mission Impossible, Barbie and Oppenheimer releases, the film has been a new front in America’s culture wars.

A press release issued by the Trump 2024 campaign to announce the former president would host a screening at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, said “liberal media outlets like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter” had refused to review the film and “publications like Rolling Stone, Washington Post, CNN and The Guardian have trashed the film and mocked the millions of movie-goers who purchased tickets to screenings”.

On Twitter, there have been claims that American cinemas are inventing spurious technical and airconditioning problems to stop people watching the film and counterclaims that right-wing groups are booking out sessions that no-one attends to boost ticket sales.

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