“Dark fairytale” played out on the edge

Gaylene Preston and Rachael Blake  NZ director and Australian star of Perfect Strangers  speak to the Age about filming on the South Island’s rugged West Coast. Preston used the sense of physical unease to the film’s advantage: “I remember thinking during the shoot that it was so much better where we were than everybody being in comfortable green rooms and everything being done in a studio.” The Age critic agrees: “The result is a little like a dark fairytale … it’s clear that Preston pushes her characters as close to the edge as she does herself and her cast.”