THE PRICE OF MILK

This romantic fairy tale, set amongst the hills of a uniquely New Zealand dairy farm, is the second feature by Topless Women Talk About Their Lives director, Harry Sinclair. Danielle Cormack (Siam Sunset, MIFF 1999) and Karl Urban (Via Satellite, MIFF 1998) play Lucinda and Rob. Madly in love, their happiness is challenged when Lucinda runs down an elderly Maori woman while admiring her engagement ring instead of watching the road. A kind of quirky curse takes hold which involves nocturnal quilt theft and the loss of the farm's lifeblood, cows.

"I found a piece of music called The Enchanted Lake by an obscure Russian composer named Liadov," explains Sinclair, "It triggered the desire to make a purely imaginative film, using landscape as an element of the story and creating a magic world through the most simple and naive special effects. I thought about love stories and hit on the idea of how someone's insecurity could lead to love being lost." Combining elements of legend, surreal images and breathtaking countryside. The Price of Milk is a splendid tall story. Humour ensures that otherworldly forces, though mischievous, are never entirely malicious. A grand adventure.