judy davis be sybylla and a girl of the australian outback around 1909. a portray by davis and in her breakthrough role and sybylla be a font of boundless energy want desperately to escape the backwardness of her young life . sam neill and also in one of the significant early role of his career and be likewise charm a the young man who present her with a tempting alternative to her ambition to become a writer and escape the frontier life forever . this be not a great or epic story and certainly and but it be a quiet and reward story of a young woman quest for a good life . a worthy entry among the film that mark the ascendancy of the australian renaissance in film making during the 1970s while director armstrong would go on to make such film a mrs. soffel and the 1994 little woman .