German poster for The Last Wave

A film's poster is an integral part of its cinematic release. It draws audiences in by giving them a sense of what to expect, whether that's the film's genre, who stars in it, or where it's set. You can see this in the German poster of Die Letzte Flut (The Last Wave), which doesn't depict the plot, yet conveys the 1977 film's dramatic tone and mood. It's an interesting example of the different ways in which an Australian film can be marketed overseas. In this poster, a key protagonist (played by David Gulpilil) is pictured above the title, within whose letters you can see the swirling surface of the ocean. This is fitting for Peter Weir's feature, which features water as a recurring motif, symbolising both nature’s destructive force and its cleansing, transformative power. The actual plot of The Last Wave focuses on a white Sydney lawyer who is tasked with defending a group of Aboriginal men accused of murdering one of their own.