Steve Kilbey

In New South Wales, Jared surfs with his mates and has a first girl. He hosts a beach party for his older pal, Ricko, and witnesses four of his mates gang-rape a 15 year old. He does nothing, and the next day, she's found murdered. At school, the boys and the girls react: the girls with anger at the perpetrators, the boys with jeering at the dead girl's morality. The students' parents have their own responses. Jared retreats into angry silence, disgusted that he did nothing to help the dead girl. Meanwhile, his mother wants to talk to him about her impending cancer surgery, the police want to know what he saw, and his friend Ricko wants an alibi. Jared's cracking under the pressure.

A young, restless Jewish mother and her family move to an idyllic country property at the base of a mystical and sacred Aboriginal mountain (Gulaga, or “Mother Mountain”), with the hope of starting a new life. Still haunted by a marriage break-up and a strained relation with her parents, she struggles to find a meaningful connection with her new partner. When her daughter is bullied at the local school, an enigmatic Indigenous boy Ren comes to her aid and opens her eyes to the magic of the mountain and its bucolic surrounds. But an unexpected visit from her parents reopens old wounds, with unexpected consequences.

It begins with the discovery of the Mungo Skeletons in Australia by Professor Bowler in 1969 and ends with the destruction of the Earth by solar flare in 2039. A unique fusion of science fiction, mysticism, and post-apocalyptic fantasy, The Rare Earth is a compelling drama beautifully shot in the wilds of Australia.