Plains Empty
Beck Cole | Australia 2004 | 26 min
When Sam and her husband move to a remote mining camp in the desolate outback, she finds herself struggling to cope with the lonely existence. Eventually, she questions whether she is really alone.
Plains Empty takes the old standard of a restless spirit and infuses new life into it by setting the action in a deserted outback mining camp. When a woman is left alone on the edge of nowhere, she begins seeing visions of a ghostly young girl and starts seeking more information about her identity.
Punctuated with stunning landscape shots that emphasize our protagonist’s sense of isolation, Cole has put together a haunting and effective story.
How Plains Empty came into being
Beck Cole has always been fascinated by ghosts and would often go to Adelaide for “the big smoke”. On one of those trips which she did with an aunty, the aunty suddenly saw a little girl by the road as they were passing Coober Pedy.
So they turned their vehicle and drove back but instead of the girl found a little boy. They took him back to Coober Pedy where many Aboriginal people were waving down all trucks because they had lost the boy.
Sam wonders if the plains are really as empty as they appear.
