The Bushmen (and women) are back -- in Simon Stadler/Catenia Lermer's GHOSTLAND

The very first scene of GHOSTLAND -- African natives viewing an airplane -- a new documentary about the bush people of Namibia, may have us elders recalling a very popular, though to my mind rather heavy-handed and condescending movie called The Gods Must Be Crazy, which detailed a Bushman's interface with modernity in a highly comic manner. This new movie, while having its funny moments, is much more even-handed (the earlier film was a narrative, in any case), as it shows us a bush tribe undergoing some change and adaptation to the world of today.

As co-written (with Catenia Lermer) and directed by Simon Stadler (the latter shown at right) -- this is a first film for each of them -- the movie makes up in simplicity, honesty and feeling what it may lack in slick professionalism. It captures the character -- individually and as a group -- of this unusual Ju'Hoansi tribe in ways that range from funny and charming to quietly compelling. The movie also makes its points without condescension -- to both those natives and the western world with which they must increasingly interact.

Initially, it's the western world that comes to them. "The first time we saw the white man, we thought it was a ghost," one of them explains (hence the movie's title), and even when the tribe gets to know the western world and its discontents, it still remains unconvinced. "Sometimes white people are crazy," one explains. "They want too much and work too much, and it seems they never sleep.” Amen.

Seeing a homeless man begging in a German city, "It seems white people can also be poor." Still, the tribe is indeed learning the ropes of "civilization." As one of them notes, "We have to work with the tourists to survive." First the whites and their crew get to know the natives (and so, of course, do we) and then they take them on a kind of "field trip" to the modern world. Seeing the tribe and its first experiece in a supermarket is as much of a wonder to us as the supermarket is to them.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the film takes our tribe into the world of another African tribe, the Himbas (that's a Himba woman, above), and the interplay is fascinating. Then the opportunity arises for four of the natives to take an extended trip to Germany where they will mix and even "teach." From being up in that airplane they watched at the film's beginning to taking a trip in the subway ("We are under the earth!"), the four tribe members take in our modern world in wonder but with irony and intelligence. And yes, they do teach.

The update we learn in the end credits is both helpful and sad. One wishes to know why certain events occurred. In fact, there is a lot more we might have learned here. But the filmmakers obviously preferred to simply watch and listen, rather than do a lot of questioning. Even so, what we see, hear and feel should make budding anthropologists thrill, and folk who love documentaries just happy to have experienced the film.

From Cargo Film & Releasing and Autlook Film Sales, Ghostland opens tomorrow, Wednesday, December 14, in New York City for a two-week run at Film Forum, Elsewhere? Not sure. But you can at least learn more via the film's website.

Catching up with an Australian classic: Ted Kotcheff's and Evan Jones' WAKE IN FRIGHT

You've probably heard of this Aussie film from 1971, just as I had. In fact I was certain I'd seen it when it made its U.S. debut. But no -- WAKE IN FRIGHT is a film one does not easily (maybe ever) forget. This is all the more surprising, given that the tale unfolds so simply, naturally, as the "hero" of the movie, John Grant, a young school teacher serving his initial time working in a one-horse-town in Austra-lia's "outback," finishes his last day prior to Christmas vacation and leaves for an overnight stay in Bundanyabba (known to its inhabitants as "The Yabba"), before heading to civilization and a girlfriend in Sydney.

What happens to Grant in The Yabba is shocking all right, but the beauty of the movie -- aside from its brilliant color scheme, cinematography and its gorgeous lead actor, Gary Bond (below, left) -- is how our hero for the most part brings all of this down on himself. The film, written by the very talented Evan Jones (These Are the Damned), from a novel by Kenneth Cook, and directed by Ted Kotcheff (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), posits a pretty hateful outback: full of misogynistic, macho (or ocker, as they call it down under) males who appear to live for little else than lager, lust and the occasi-onal Kangaroo massacre.

However, if John Grant is to be taken as some kind of example of polite and cultured society, then civilized Australia of that day was untested, snobbish, even a little smarmy. The screenplay's dialog is particularly good: always real and believable, while dotted with occasional smart talk. In this film, the viewer listens as carefully as s/he watches. And the rewards are great. Kotcheff keeps showiness to a minimum, but allows himself some leeway, doing a fine and crazy job of it as Grant goes on a drunken, gambling bender (below). He lets the location -- whether it's a sweat-filled back-room or the tinder-dry outback, overflowing with sunshine and orange earth tones -- create the world we see.

Mr. Bond, his pretty-boy face coupled to a superb body, all of which is on view in one particular scene, is a fine choice as the man who is simultaneously corrupted and humanized. He is surrounded by some of the best talent Australia had on hand back then, along with some more from Britain, such as Donald Pleasence (below), seen here in one of his best screen roles as the disgraced doctor who befriends our hero and opens him up to himself.

Also on hand is Aussie star Jack Thompson, below, seen just a year or two prior to his breakout, along with old-timer Chips Rafferty, playing the Yabba's constable. Best of all the supporting players perhaps is Sylvia Kaye, as the only woman we get close to -- a sad, angry lady stuck forever in what can only be sheer hell for a feeling female.

What makes Wake in Fright -- running 114 minutes in a restoration released theatrically by Drafthouse Films -- truly shocking is how inured these characters seem to all that happens -- as though this is simply par for their course. Trust me: It won't be for yours.

After disappearing from the movie scene nearly since its release, the film has been beautifully restored in high definition, which you can now view in all its glory via Netflix streaming.