Walkabout

A geologist drives his teenage daughter and young son into the Australian outback under the pretence of a picnic. He shoots at them, sets the car alight and kills himself, leaving the two city-raised children stranded in the desert with little more than a transistor radio. While they struggle to find water and food, they meet an Aboriginal boy who is himself alone, separated from his people during a ritual. He teaches them how to survive in country that is utterly unfamiliar to them.

Nicolas Roeg directed the film, the second of the thirteen features listed for him, following Performance and preceding Don't Look Now. Edward Bond wrote the screenplay, and Si Litvinoff produced. Jenny Agutter plays the girl, Luc Roeg her brother, David Gulpilil the Aboriginal boy, with John Meillon, Robert McDarra and Peter Carver among the supporting cast. Made on a budget of about one million dollars, the film runs ninety-five minutes.

Audience responses have been favourable: on IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from roughly 30,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.3 from 474 votes. A critics' rating of 8.4 from 43 reviews places it somewhat higher than either audience figure, indicating strong critical standing for a film of its age and scale.