Expert: Mel Priddle - 5/26/2009

Question
hi!

i am wondering if you can help me with the name of a movie that i very much would like to see again. it was about 1980 and it is about a little boy that is traveling in a small plane in africa. the plane crashes and kills the pilot. the little boy survives but is on  his own and is lost somewhere in i believe africa. it illustrates how he survives and situations he has to deal with. at night he is very cold and scared and there are lions and hyaneas. he finds an ostritch egg wich he cracks and eats. his father tries to find him by dropping flyers all over the area...

does this sound familiar?

it made a huge impression on me because the little boy in the movie was about the same age as i was at the time. i never forgot it. i would like to see it again now that im an adult.

thank you in advance for your help.  

Answer
Hello Julia,

This film is called "Dirkie". A South African production filmed in 1969, it was directed by Jamie Uys, who also played the part of the father, and starred his son, Wynand Uys, in the role of the lost boy, Dirkie.

When released in the UK in 1974, the title was changed to "Lost In The Desert".

Here are a few of links.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_Desert

http://www.impawards.com/1970/dirkie.html

http://www.cvmc.net/movie.jsp?movie_id=5799

http://www.vicpine.co.uk/Dirkie.htm


Glad to be of help. Cheers........Mel.