The first full length feature film produced primarily by Papua New Guineans is an ambitious undertaking. It communicates to a national audience the theme of population awareness via the perils and trials of contemporary human existence in the Highlands. Marabe is portrayed as a young father of the mountains whose control of his environment gradually disintegrates. His first wife dies; he remarries and struggles to regain control of his family, his gardens and his future. Later, his two oldest sons desert him for the cities; his oldest daughter leaves him against his wishes to receive further schooling; his wife produces another child and struggles to produce adequate food from their gardens. The soil of Marabe's existence, both literally and figuratively, soon begins to weary from its burden to sustain him and his family's expanding needs. If contemporary life is difficult for the father, the two sons find it even worse in the cities; one encounters problems with rascal elements and soon thinks that a return to his father is not so unattractive after all; the other is less fortunate. He returns home in a coffin after being shot for encroaching on native land. In short, "Marabe" is a depressing tale lonely refugees, a painful portrayal of Papuan society adrift.