Tracks (2014)

Australian loner decides she wants to trek almost 2000 miles across the desert with just some camels for carrying and her dog for company. In order to finance this endeavor, she strikes a sponsorship deal with National Geographic, which means she has to suffer several meet-ups with a photographer along the way.

Robyn’s incredibly prickly, which is part of what I liked about this film. It felt brave for a woman to allow herself to show her annoyance and to insist on doing things her way, especially 40 years ago when I'm pretty sure the majority of women were working hard to be amenable. Even with a strong lead, the film came off as almost too restrained, though. There were a couple of moments where the situation must have felt especially frightening (e.g. waking up to her camels nowhere in sight), but the panic never came across on screen.

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