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LAST OF THE NOMADS, THE

Year: 1997

Classification: Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G

Runtime: 52 min

Produced In: Australia

Directed By: Mathew Kelley

Produced By: Samantha Kelley, Peter Du Cane

Language: English

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THE LAST OF THE NOMADS tells the moving story of Warri and Yatungka, the last of the Mandildjara people to be living a traditional nomadic lifestyle in the remote Gibson Desert of central Australia.

Like an antipodean version of Romeo and Juliet, it emerges that Warri and Yatungka became the last nomads because they had married outside their tribal laws and eloped to the most inaccessible of regions. In 1977 the land was stricken by a severe drought and their tribal elders mounted a search for them with the help of a party of white men led by Dr Bill Peasley and one of their own number, a childhood friend named Mudjon. The film takes Dr Peasley back into the desert to relive his momentous journey with Mudjon and culminates with poignant archival footage of the elderly couple found naked and starving.

"Every once in a while, television delivers a programme that is truly a special event. This is one such show ... it offers an invaluable and poignant insight into Aboriginal culture." - Courier Mail, Brisbane.

"If you want television that engages the heart as well as the mind, don't miss this one." - The West Australian.

  • WINNER! GOLD MEDAL, New York Film & Television Festival

Narrated by Dene Irvin

Directed by Mathew Kelley
Produced by Peter Du Cane and Samantha Kelley
Co-Producer - Garry Gower
Executive Producer - Peter Du Cane
Written by Mathew Kelley and Garry Gower
Based in "The Last of the Nomads" by W.J. Peasley
Editor - David Fosdick
Original music by Chris Norman
Director of Photography - Alex McPhee ACS
Sound recording - Scott Montgomery

Produced with the assistance of Screen West
and the Lotteries Commission of WA
Produced with the assistance of SBS Independent

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