Walkabout (1970)
While on a family picnic in the Australian outback with their
father, an English teenage girl (Jenny Agutter) is left stranded
with her 6-year-old brother (Luc Roeg) when their father
inexplicably shoots himself.
Their
salvation unexpectedly arrives in the form of a young aborigine
boy who is off on 'walkabout' - a journey on his own to prove his
manhood. The aborigine guides the English children back to
civilisation.
This is primarily a film about a clash of cultures. There is a
strong sexual attraction between the girl (Jenny Agutter) and the
aborigine (David Gulpilil) but she resists, treating him as a
servant rather than a prospective lover.
The eerie quality of the film is intensified by minimal
dialogue and Roeg's visually stunning desert imagery, which
constructs a haunting visual and psychological morality tale on
the exploitation of the natural world and ignorance of native
cultures.
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