FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Peter Weir - The Last Wave 

The films of the Australian Peter Weir seem like ghostly daydreams. Sometimes images linger like a vision of ghosts. The Last Wave, the great follow-up to Picnic At Hanging Rock, has an unsettling, surreal energy. It is elusive and can only be interpreted from the moment when something as mundane as the weather becomes an instrument of terror, of horror. Suddenly everything around us, the birds, the grasses, the sky seems threatening. The title The Last Wave is not meant as an allusion. Rather, you can simply take it literally. Very slowly, the water seeps in. From storms, dreams and prophecies to the finale, the end of the world. Water remains the central motif of The Last Wave. Yesterday a storm passed over Berlin. The water suddenly came from everywhere. What would happen if it never stopped? And how does a person who thinks logically in himself react the moment he realises that he is part of a mystical narrative? A narrative that has to do with the Dreamtime? Peter Weir shows all this quite realistically, even if his story slides into the fantastic. At the centre is the lawyer David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), who defends a group of Aborigines. They are accused of murder. The cause of death is uncertain. No one can be persuaded to testify. David is obstructed at every turn in his investigation and comes to the conclusion that it must be some kind of tribal ritual. Will this serve as an argument in court? A colleague, however, implores David that Aborigines have long since ceased to exist. Their rituals, ceremonies, songs and dances have long since been destroyed by us. Then one of the five people accused of murder appears in David's dreams. From the subconscious into real life. In court, Western "civilisation" now tries to rationalise the ancient spirituality of the Aborigines - an attempt that is doomed to failure. For what are we against the mighty forces of nature? How could we react other than with complete helplessness? Peter Weir made his film in 1977, but in view of the consequences of the climate catastrophe, it seems almost prophetic today and not at all outdated. And the way Peter Weir sets turning points that have to do with mysticism and the end of time is breathtaking! Because very slowly we become aware of how a series of personal turbulences are connected to a much bigger, more far-reaching dilemma....