Land of Lost Content: Finding a Way Through 'Walkabout'

Half a century on from its premiere, Nicolas Roeg's strange outback parable continues to mystify and unsettle as much as it did upon release. Looking closely at the film's imagery, thematic elements and departures from its source text, Neil Sinyard detects warnings about the corrosive force of industrialised society and the disconnections of urban life that, in 2021, seem more relevant than ever.

Additional keywords:
James Vance Marshall, Donald G Payne, The Children, David Gulpilil, Jenny Agutter, John Meillon, Aboriginal, Indigenous, First Nations, Australian cinema, Australian film revival, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Storm Boy, Performance, lost children narrative, Julia Eccleshare, TS Eliot, The Waste Land, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sidney Nolan, Woman and Billabong, hunting, animals, civilisation, nudity, colonialism, capitalism, AE Housman, A Shropshire Lad, David Lean, Doctor Zhivago, global warming, climate change, Gordon Gow