📰 What Happened
The Guardian's film column looked back at The Last Wave, Peter Weir's 1977 thriller. The film follows a Sydney lawyer who defends four Aboriginal men accused of murder. He starts having strange dreams about a giant flood. The review was published on 23 Sep 2026. It calls David Gulpilil's performance as Chris Lee the best thing in the film. Richard Chamberlain plays the lawyer, David Burton.
🔍 The Backstory
The film came after Weir's hit Picnic at Hanging Rock. It was one of the first Australian films to hire First Nations advisers. Elder Nandjiwarra Amagula told the crew not to use real sacred objects, so the filmmakers invented symbols instead. Weir said Australia's lost history haunted him. The Last Wave is streaming in Australia on ABC iview. Its questions about colonisation and justice still feel current.
🎯 Why It Matters
The film asks who really gets justice in Australia, and how much of the past is still unsettled. It is an easy way to meet Gulpilil's landmark work.

The Guardian's film column looked back at The Last Wave, Peter Weir's 1977 thriller. The film follows a Sydney lawyer who defends four Aboriginal men accused of murder. He starts having strange dreams about a giant flood. The review was published on 23 Sep 2026. It calls David Gulpilil's performance as Chris Lee the best thing in the film. Richard Chamberlain plays the lawyer, David Burton.

The film came after Weir's hit Picnic at Hanging Rock. It was one of the first Australian films to hire First Nations advisers. Elder Nandjiwarra Amagula told the crew not to use real sacred objects, so the filmmakers invented symbols instead. Weir said Australia's lost history haunted him. The Last Wave is streaming in Australia on ABC iview. Its questions about colonisation and justice still feel current.

The film asks who really gets justice in Australia, and how much of the past is still unsettled. It is an easy way to meet Gulpilil's landmark work.

📰 Source: News Source
theguardian.com ↗
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