This sensuous mystery made Peter Weir's (The Truman Show, Witness, Dead Poets Society) reputation and brought Australian film into the worldwide spotlight. Set in turn-of-the-century Australia, Picnic at Hanging Rock dramatizes the unexplainable, almost supernatural, dissappearence of three girls and teacher on a school picnic. Their boarding school seems a Victorian oasis of all things proper, but beneath the facade, pupils and schoolmistresses yearn with unfulfiled desires. Stepping into the sun-drenched outback and falling under its primitive spell, one group climbs a tower of treacherous rocks as if called away from their repressive life. Racishing cinematography juxtaposing linens and lace of ancient, bug-infested bush hypnotizes viewers into the same sinister trance. Re-cut after more than 20 years, this version presents Weir's masterpiece as he intended it.