In present-day sequences set in downtown Adelaide and coastal surroundings, Rush plays Michael Kingley, a retired businessman whose family company is about to vote on a proposal to lease land in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia to a mining company. Pushing hard for a yes is Kingley’s son-in-law, Malcolm Downer (Erik Thomsen). Opposing the move is Downer’s daughter, Maddy (Morgana Davies), a 17-year-old whose passionate concern for the environment will strike a winning chord with many young viewers.

An unexpected delay in the voting procedure allows Kingley to spend time with granddaughter Maddy at her family’s fancy seaside mansion and tell her tales from his unusual and eventful childhood. At this point the film flashes back to the 1950s, when pre-teen Michael Kingley (Finn Little) was a motherless boy living with his reclusive, emotionally scarred fisherman father, “Hideaway” Tom (Jai Courtney). Home for the duo was an isolated beachside shack on the edge of Coorong National Park, 100 miles southeast of Adelaide.

While the present-day sequences are fine, “Storm Boy” finds its glowing heart and soul in the lengthy flashbacks. Spending his days helping dad and exploring the Coorong’s magnificent environs, Michael is befriended by Fingerbone Bill (Trevor Jamieson, excellent), an aboriginal man forced to live apart from his community. In splendid sequences that illustrate important elements of aboriginal culture, Bill gives Michael the “Storm Boy” nickname and helps him rescue three pelican chicks whose mother was killed by nasty local hunters opposed to the proposed establishment of a local bird sanctuary. Though not expected to survive, the birds named Mr Proud, Mr Ponder and Mr Percival thrive under Michael’s loving care.

After all three have been returned to their breeding ground by a tearful Michael, Mr Percival returns. The boy’s renewed friendship with his loyal, funny and clever companion is delightful. Talented juvenile actor Little captures all the joy that comes with the special bond between a sensitive boy and his best animal pal. Though altered from how it unfolds in the novel and original film, Mr Percival’s participation in a dramatic sea rescue is exciting and streams nicely into grandfather Michael’s conversations with Maddy about child-parent relationships.

Seet, a highly regarded TV and miniseries director whose previous feature was the underrated “Two Fists, One Heart” (2008), and writer Justin Monjo (“Jungle”), elegantly weave details of Storm Boy and Hideaway Tom’s tragic past into the tale. Themes of loss, grief and separation are pitched at just the right level to resonate with children and adults alike. Seet brings everything to a moving and meaningful conclusion with a lovely piece of magic realism.

Handsomely filmed in earthy tones by DP Bruce Young, and never once looking like a tourism promo reel, “Storm Boy” is crafted with care and class. Of special note is superbly detailed production design by Melinda Doring (“The Sapphires,” “Berlin Syndrome”), and costume design by Louise McCarthy that understands perfectly how 1930s and ‘40s fashions would still be in vogue in 1950s rural Australia.

A very beautiful cameo by David Gulpilil, the great indigenous Australian actor who played Fingerbone Bill in 1976, is another of the film’s many pleasures.