DVD & BluRay

WALKABOUT: LIMITED EDITION Second Sight, cert 12 Blu-ray Boxset £28.99

Second Sight is the film buff’s go-to label for sumptuous 4K Blu-ray restorations of rare and cult movies that have long been unavailable.

Only 3000 copies will be available of this limited edition boxset (with extras including a softcover version of the book, one of the script and essays by film experts) celebrating director Nicolas Roeg’s seminal 1971 Australian film. A big surprise is the transition of Jenny Agutter (pictured) from young girl in The Railway Children, to teenager on the cusp of womanhood here. The story of a battle for survival in the outback begins with teenage Mary and younger brother Peter (played by Roeg’s son Luc) being stranded after their father -seemingly escaping a loveless marriage - drives the kids, still in school uniform, into the wilderness and shoots himself. It leaves the siblings apparently doomed in the blistering heat. Luckily, after days of wandering, at a temporary oasis their path crosses that of an Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) on a tribal coming-ofage ‘walkabout’, where he has to survive six months hunting and finding water. The two youngsters from western civilisation come to depend on skills the youth has learned, and there’s an undercurrent of awareness developing in his relationship with Mary. The survival (or not) of the humans is contrasted with the daily skirmishes of the various outback creatures both predators and prey. But the film curiously avoids human emotions and happy-everafters.

Who starred in Roeg’s The ManWho Fell To Earth? Entries to Alex Gordon, Walkabout competition. All prizes will be distributed asap.