The Goddess of 1967

In Tokyo, JM, a wealthy IT worker and occasional hacker, scans the net for a pristine 1967 Citroën DS known as the Goddess. He lives in a spotless, high-tech apartment that feels cold and unfriendly, surrounded by gadgets and exotic reptiles. The car becomes more than a purchase for him: a possible antidote to the emotional emptiness he feels despite his success.

After tracing the Goddess to Australia, JM abandons his Tokyo job and flies overseas to seal the deal. The online trail centers on a couple who supposedly own the car, but no one meets him at the airport, leaving him to navigate alone. The pursuit quickly shifts from a simple purchase to a personal journey into a new, unfamiliar country.

JM arrives at the couple's home in the Australian countryside and meets BG, a blind but emotionally volatile young woman who is minding a child. She reveals the couple never really owned the car, and that the husband killed his wife and then himself after a money dispute. After a test drive, she claims she can take him to the real owner, who is somewhere in the Outback.

BG proposes a five-day journey to locate the car's true owner in the Outback. She abruptly abandons the child at a service station and phones the police to pick her up, warning JM not to trust anyone along the way. The trip into the harsh landscape begins with tension and a shared defiance of their uncertain futures.

As they press deeper into the brutal Outback, the narrative cuts to flashbacks that illuminate why JM wants the Goddess and how the emptiness in his life arose. A friend gave him a password to a major bank, and that moment of wealth is followed by the friend’s death when he is run over by a truck. These memories hint that the journey is as much about healing as about a car.

Parallel flashbacks reveal BG's trauma: she was sexually assaulted three years earlier by a traveling circus boxer, who is thwarted by a chastity belt. She escaped into the bush and found protection among wild dingoes. As a child, she also endured abuse from her grandfather, her blood father, while her mother Marie's deeply religious worldview added to the damage.

BG reveals that her grandfather owns the Goddess, and that she has been guiding JM toward him not to finalize a sale but to confront the old man. The revelation reframes the trip as a test of trust and a potential act of revenge or redemption. JM realizes the journey is as much about BG's past as his own desire for the car.

BG's world centers on a radio obituary notices program, and she is drawn to the insect sounds splattering on the car's windshield, which she calls the sound of death. Despite being blind, she carries a pistol and uses it more than once as danger comes close. The sensory motifs reinforce that sight, sound, and threat shape their journey.

During JM's test drive, two sinister men pull up beside the car and BG fires her pistol at them, a stark reminder of the danger that trails them. The moment cements their precarious alliance and the deadly edge of their adventure. It also underlines BG's capacity to act, despite her disability.

As they endure the relentless landscape, JM teaches BG to dance and the pair gradually become friends and tentative lovers. The act of dancing becomes a fragile bridge between two damaged souls, offering a spark of normalcy amid chaos. Their bond deepens even as the journey remains dangerous and uncertain.

BG finally finds her grandfather at a rundown opal mine and confronts him. She had planned to shoot him, but as she processes the past and finds genuine care from JM, she chooses not to go through with it. The confrontation marks a turning point in her healing and in their relationship.

With the past reconciled in different ways, BG and JM decide to move forward together rather than apart. They climb back into the Goddess and drive off into the landscape, the car symbolizing a shared future rather than a solitary obsession.

The film closes with BG and JM traveling off together in the Citroën, having addressed their traumas and found each other, and perhaps a sense that their complicated relationship with the past will continue to shape their lives. The Goddess remains a literal and symbolic vehicle for their healing.