In English with Slovenian subtitles.
The year is 1968. After the tragic loss of his father, eleven year old Mick Carter (LEVI
MILLER) is shipped off by his grieving mother to a vast cattle station owned by his
Grandpa (BRYAN BROWN).
The station is in the Pilbara - a grand, ancient Australian landscape, remote and cut off
from city life. At the station, Mick is the only child. The Outback attracts strong men that
know the value of silence - but that’s not Mick. He’s a talker - a talker without anyone to
talk to. He’s lost and lonely.
The station is filled with a cast of charming misfits – Bill Stemple (THOMAS
COCQUEREL), a bravado-fuelled helicopter pilot returned from Vietnam; Little and Big
John (SYD BRISBANE and STEVE LE MARQUAND), stockmen with a secret; Jimmy
Umbrella (KEE CHAN), an eccentric, slightly unhinged cook; and Taylor Pete (CALEN
TASSONE), an Aboriginal jackaroo and budding activist.
When a cyclone hits, water rises and floods the dry land. In the middle of a flooded plane,
Mick finds a dog covered with blue mud. Mick rescues him and calls him ‘Blue’.
Mick and Blue become inseparable. Mick treats Blue as an equal, a companion, but as an
Aboriginal elder tells him, Blue is more than a dog; he’s a Marlunghu- a trickster spirit.
Mick and Blue get into their share of trouble and the boy and his dog become
inseparable.
Grandpa is determined that Mick’s life is more than just play and is concerned Mick
requires a formal education. The subsequent arrival of a beautiful tutor, Betty Marble
(HANNA MANGAN LAWRENCE) complicates relationships - not just between Mick
and Blue, but between Mick and Bill Stemple.
Betty starts to stir competitive rivalries in Stemple and Mick but, with the world in the
throes of change that reach into even this remote landscape, Betty wants more than either
of them can offer. Relationships between the Aboriginal community and white folk strain
– this is a time of conflict and change not just for Mick, but for an entire country.
When he finds out he has to leave his beloved dog for boarding school in the big smoke,
Mick runs away with Blue. Only a few kilometers away, Mick and Blue see a fire coming
towards the station and must make a decision – to turn back and face responsibility and
the pain of growing up, or escape from the forces pulling them apart.
