Walkabout – 1971 | 100 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Nicolas Roeg’s magical rites-of-passage drama chronicles the physical, spiritual, and emotional journey of a sister and brother, adapted by Edward Bond from the novel by James Vance Marshall. Using minimal dialogue and visually stunning desert imagery, Roeg constructs a haunting visual and psychological morality tale on the exploitation of the natural world and ignorance of native cultures. Both celebratory and pessimistic, Roeg’s unconventional masterpiece is an extraordinarily thoughtful and provocative film.

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. The pair are left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment with little hope of making their way back to civilisation. The discovery of an oasis provides brief respite, but the following morning the water and fruit is gone. Their salvation unexpectedly arrives in the form of an adolescent Aborigine boy (David Gulpilil) who is in the middle of his rite of passage ‘walkabout’. As the trio journey through the scorching heat and awe-inspiring landscape their two worlds collide, ultimately with tragic misunderstandings as they near civilization.