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“When Melanie goes home from the pub with a handsome stranger, she’s captivated by his charm and attentiveness.
“He sails her away to his ‘castle’ - a rundown shack on a deserted island. But when seduction becomes deception and passion becomes possession, Melanie realises that she has been kidnapped.
“Torn between fear and desire, Melanie must escape – but her ardent admirer has other plans.
“The story of PERFECT STRANGERS explores the fine line between love and pursuit, romance and danger, fear and obsession. How far do you fall when you fall in love?
Says writer/director Gaylene Preston, "The enduring mystery of the perfect stranger, that unknown and perfect person who will ‘arrive and take us away from all this', remains central to the mythology of romance. We are warned to steer clear of strangers, yet it is as strangers that we fall in love."
"The plot is unquestionably bizarre and aimed at exploiting the audience’s overwhelming need for a ‘happy ending'. Melanie’s emotional transition is the story’s central journey, and it is the small shifts in her psychological reality which to a large extent, drive the plot. The man is not a ‘baddie'. Melanie is not a ‘goodie’. Complex characters in life and in stories behave mysteriously until we get to understand them properly.” - New Zealand Film Commission; www.nzfilm.co.nz/film/perfect-strangers; 22/01/2014.