Lost in the Desert

Lost in the Desert, initially released as Dirkie, is a South African film from 19691970, written, produced and directed by Jamie Uys under the name of Jamie Hayes.

The story is about 8yearold Dirkie DeVries Wynand Uys, credited as Dirkie Hayes, who is flying with his Uncle Pete Pieter Hauptfleisch across the Kalahari Desert in a small plane, piloted by Uncle Pete, who partway into the flight has a heart attack and partially loses control of the plane. Thanks to his struggles to land safely in the desert even while suffering the heart attack, the crash is not as serious as it might have been otherwise, and, while Pete himself dies, Dirkie and his small pet dog survive, and the bulk of the story follows Dirkies various adventures while he struggles to survive the harsh desert conditions, including an encounter with Kalahari Desert Bushmen, who give him help, but abandon him after an unfortunate misunderstanding concerning Dirkies dog.The story switches several times to Dirkies father Anton DeVries played by the director Jamie Uys, credited as Jamie Hayes and follows his increasingly desperate efforts to locate his son, including having a couple of million leaflets specially printed and spread over the desert from a plane, containing instructions for Dirkie on how to survive in the desert, and assuring him that his father loves him and wont give up trying to rescue him. The film features the unusual technique of showing Anton playing the piano, then switching to Dirkie in the desert while continuing to use the piano music as background music for the following desert scenes. ........

Source: Wikipedia