Walkabout

This is up there - either in my great or very worthwhile, I'm going to need to sleep on it. Man, this movie is fascinating. It takes place in Australia and these two kids are left stranded in the outback after their father shoots himself in the head and burns their car. The older sister feeds her younger brother fairy tales to lead them to safety. On their way, they meet an aboriginal boy on his "Walkabout" where he goes off to survive in the wild on his own, before returning to his family. On the obvious level, it's about the two different cultures and narratives meeting one another, but the style adds so much, intercut images of the sun to demarcate time, along with inserts of animals native to the outback interacting with the characters on their journey. There are competing narratives, the brother and sister are operating on different levels, the boy is in Robinson Crusoe, an eager adventurer, whereas the girl is on a mission to save the group. The aborginal boy, too, is on a much different narrative, trying to prove his worth and survive his walkabout. It's as if Sam Peckinpah made Crocodile Dundee with precocious children. And the last scene rules.

Other movies by Nick Roeg...The Man Who Fell to Earth featuring David Bowie. If you just feel like being really, really weird, I highly recommend.