Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Journey among Women (1977)

play Nudity
clip Burying the dead

Original classification rating: R. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

After the rape and murder of one of their new 'tribe’, the women paint their bodies in grief and perform burial rites.

Curator’s notes

The scene is a strange blend of eco- and gender politics – expressing a strong neo-primitive urge, and a sense of identification with Aboriginal rituals. A few years later, similar scenes can be found in Mad Max II, another neo-primitive film, except that it deals with a tribe of children, left parentless after a nuclear apocalypse.