Walkabout

Walkabout follows a geologist who takes his teenage daughter and her six-year-old brother into the Australian outback under the cover of a family picnic. What seems like a simple excursion becomes a brutal test of survival when far from any shelter the trio must rely on instinct, resourcefulness and luck. With the climate harsh and the landscape indifferent, the children learn to read the land in ways their city life never prepared them for. A chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy offers practical help and hints at a deeper clash between civilization and wilderness, without softening the reality of the trek, and resilience gradually emerges.

Walkabout, a 1971 drama directed by Nicolas Roeg, adapts James Vance Marshall’s Walkabout with screenplay by Edward Bond. It stars Jenny Agutter as Girl, Luc Roeg as White Boy, and David Gulpilil as Black Boy, with budget of one million.

Box office data for Walkabout is not included in the provided information, and detailed figures from its original release are not readily available in this material. The film remains better known for its artistic impact than its commercial record elsewhere.

Walkabout is renowned for its stark visuals and Roeg's offbeat editing that pairs intimate character moments with vast desert landscapes. The film helped shape Australian cinema's international voice and sparked conversations about cultural representation, childhood perception, and the pull of the wild, influencing later art-house work worldwide across several genres.

Critics praised the film's bold narrative style and naturalistic performances, though some found the pace challenging. It probes the collision of modern life with a raw wilderness, exploring isolation, perception, and the vulnerability of youth in extreme settings. The work remains a landmark in depicting cross-cultural tension for audiences worldwide.