Rain

Colour, 35mm
New Zealand, USA, 2001, 92 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Summer 1972. The Phelon family has rented a cottage at the seaside. Everyone is looking forward to a lovely holiday full of sun, swimming and fishing, and nights of good food and friends – a veritable idyll. Thirteen-year-old Janey and her younger brother Jim splash about playfully in the sea. Meanwhile, their parents, Kate and Ed, are preparing for another dinner party. All the adults will amuse themselves with dancing and drinking into the night, and then sleeping late into the morning. Janey and Jim have seen it all before but this year things will be completely different. The maturing Janey becomes increasingly aware that her parents’ marriage is in shambles. Her bored mother feels the barrenness of her life; her father watches helplessly as she flirts with other men. The main object of her lecherous interest is a photographer named Cady. But Kate isn’t the only one Cady has enchanted: the Lolita-inspired Janey watches his every move. . . . Rain uniquely captures the ephemeral nature of the moment during a summer which ends with a teenage girl’s terrible realisation that her carefree life is capable of changing irreversibly in a single instant.

About the director

Christine Jeffs (b. 1963, Lower Hutt, New Zealand) graduated in sociology and geography from Massey University in 1983. Her film career began as an assistant editor, and she went on to study editing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. She then worked in Australia editing numerous films and commercials. After returning to New Zealand in 1994 she shot her first film, Stroke, a short based on her own script that was shown at Cannes and Sundance. Her own commercials have received many prestigious awards. Rain (2000) is her feature debut, and after its world premiere at Cannes it went on to be a favourite at many other festivals. Critics have often cited Rain as one of the best films ever to come out of New Zealand’s film Industry.