On St. Valentine’s Day, 1900, students from an Australian girls’ college travel to Hanging Rock for a school outing; by the end of the afternoon, several girls and a teacher have vanished. The film tracks the disappearance and what it triggers—shifts in authority, accusations, and the slow damage of an event that cannot be fully accounted for.
Directed by Peter Weir in 1975 and adapted from Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock is widely treated as a cornerstone of the Australian New Wave and an international breakthrough that helped “put [Weir] on the map.” Its importance isn’t just the story, but the formal choice to withhold a solution—refusing the audience the usual closure of the mystery genre—while still showing how institutions and people reorganize themselves around uncertainty. It also earned major recognition for its craft, including a BAFTA win for cinematography (Russell Boyd).