The Last Wave

Richard Chamberlain plays a lawyer defending five Indigenous men accused of a ritual murder. Screening followed by a discussion on Indigenous representation on screen with Dr Jeanine Leane, a Wiradjuri writer, teacher and academic from south-west New South Wales.

‘The Last Wave is significant as a major film of the 1970s Australian film renaissance, a critically well-received film from a leading director of that period, and also a marker film in the career of David Gulpilil. At 24, he had been acting in Australian film and television for six years since his debut in Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971). The Last Wave was a key film in a journey that was to become both his life’s work, and his most important contribution to Australian cinema: to engage in a dialogue with Australian auteurs, audiences and Indigenous people to communicate Aboriginal identity, culture, values and history.’ - Lisa French, Senses of Cinema.

See more events in Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits program.

A proof sheet of on-set portraits taken of lead performer David Gulpilil feature in the exhibition Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, 10 November 2017 to 4 March 2018.