Right up there with Storm Boy, – indeed, pardon my pelican, but emus rule,- EMU RUNNER substitutes pelicans for emus as inspirational fine feathered friends.

Gemma is a nine year old living in Brewarrina with her parents and older sister and brother. Out of the blue, her mother drops dead and Gemma deals with her grief by adopting the emu as her totem.

She feeds and fusses over the flightless bird, stooping to theft to feed it and playing truant to be in its company.

This brings social services into her sphere with allegations of neglect by her family.

Following a cinema verite style, writer director Imogen Thomas, who wrote the film in consultation with Ngemba woman, Frayne Barker, cast many of her characters from the local community.

A major find is newcomer Rhae-Kye Waites who plays Gemma with rascally charm and considerable verve. Her real life grandmother, Mary Waites plays her character’ s grandma in the picture.

As her father, Jay Jay, Wayne Blair brings both the worry of a parent with a wayward child struggling to cope with personal grief and the very real concerns of cultural conflict between the indigenous community and White bureaucratic social services.

Georgia Blizzard is impressive as the well meaning social worker whose by the book approach clouds natural instinct and cultural sensitivity.

This nine year old girl, adrift by the loss of her mother, is anchored by deep cultural roots of her Ngemba people, country, and fauna. The emu was her mother’s totem and she instinctively adopts the bird as her spiritual mate.

Michael Gibbs cinematography beautifully captures the awesome beauty of this remote community, its delights and dangers.

An impressive debut feature for many concerned, EMU RUNNER outruns many of the silly, saccharine, overproduced and coy animalcentric films in the market. It’s a front runner.