The Last Wave
Peter Weir follows up on his critically acclaimed masterpiece Picnic at Hanging Rock with this surrealist psychological drama. The film opens with a freak hailstorm in Australia's outback.
Cut to David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), a well-to-do Sydney corporate lawyer plagued by visions of impending doom who is assigned to defend five accused of murdering a fellow Aborigine.
The case itself proves to be mysterious -- no exact cause of death can be determined by the pathologist, and the accused remain strangely tight-lipped about the whole affair.
As his visions grow increasingly weird and intense, Burton sees in his dream one of the five Aborigines, Chris (David Gulpili of Walkabout fame), who is drenched and clutching a sacred rock.
Burton's interest in the case slides into complete obsession, and he comes to believe that not only was the murder related to an underground urban tribe of Aborigines but that Australia is about to be decimated by a massive, apocalyptic tidal wave.
| Director: | Peter Weir |
| Producer(s): | Hal McElroy |
| Cast: | David Gulpilil, Olivia Hamnett, Frederick Parslow, Vivean Gray, Nanjiwarra Amagula, Roy Bara, Cedrick Lalara, Morris Lalara, Peter Carroll, Athol Compton, Hedley Cullen, Michael Duffield, Wallas Eaton, Jo England, John Frawley, Jennifer de Greenlaw, Richard Henderson, Merv Lilley, John Meagher, Guido Rametta, Malcolm Robertson, Greg Rowe, Katrina Sedgwick, Ingrid Weir |