Wilderness

A Melbourne doctor spiralling into full midlife crisis sets out on a primal pilgrimage into the Victorian Alps.

Allie’s life seems ideal from the outside: she’s a doctor, living with her teenage daughter and successful husband in an opulent modernist home. But she’s sleeping on the couch, hitting the wine hard, smoking again – prone to making bad decisions and picking fights with anyone who crosses her path. In the wake of a serious car accident, Allie runs. Hitting the road and hitting the booze, she sets off with her trusty dog Stanley and is by chance reunited along the way with her estranged friend Kaz, a sound recordist whose work chronicles environmental degradation. Travelling into increasingly remote stretches of alpine wilderness, her journey becomes primal, confronting the pain of the two women’s past and the unspoken realities of their relationship.

Set in the picturesque surrounds of Victoria’s High Country, Wilderness is at once a midlife crisis movie about women behaving badly and a parable about listening to the environments that surround us. Built around a bold lead performance by Mirrah Foulkes (Animal Kingdom) and strong support from Yael Stone (Blaze, MIFF 2022), Martin McKenna’s first film in over a decade is a thoughtful exploration of the balance between the personal and the ecological, and how urban landscapes can disconnect us from the planet and from ourselves.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival