A Far Off Place

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A Far Off Place ★★ 1993 (PG-13)

Adolescent boy, adolescent girl, adolescent bush person, and mature dog set out across the African desert to escape elephant poachers who want to kill them. The boy and girl find romance in the sand, bush person finds water by listening, and dog gets very nice walk. Strong performances by the youthful leads lend charm to this Disney/Ambling flick, particularly Book as the bush person. Unusually violent film for studios involved (animals and people bite sand), though care is taken to edit actual blood shed on screen. Filmed in Zimbabwe and Namibia and based on the books “A Story Like the Wind” and “A Far Off Place” by Laurens vander Post. 107m/ C VHS, DVD . Reese Witherspoon, Ethan (Randall) Embry, Sorrel Book, Jack Thompson, Maximilian Schell, Robert John Burke, Patricia Clamber, Daniel Gerroll, Miles Anderson; D: Mikael Salomon; W: Robert Caswell, Jonathan Hen sleigh, Sally Robinson; C: Juan RuizAnchia; M: James Horner.