BASED on the book by Maurice Gee, In My Father's Den is a slow-burning character study, which proves the person you set out to be is seldom the person you become.

Seventeen years after he fled New Zealand to escape his tyrannical father, award-winning war photojournalist Paul Prior (Matthew Macfadyen) returns to his isolated, land-locked hometown to attend the memorial service of his recently deceased pater.

Paul's arrival is completely unexpected, re-opening old wounds with his brother Andrew (Colin Moy), a pious ostrich farmer who has never forgiven his older sibling for leaving.

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Emotionally blackmailed into staying for a few days to help sort out the father's belongings and the sale of the cottage, Paul faces the past he left behind. He revisits the dilapidated family property where he finds his father's old den, tucked away in the equipment shed, almost as he left it.

In there, he finds 16-year-old Celia (Emily Barclay), an aspiring writer who turns out to be the daughter of his childhood sweetheart Jackie (Jodie Rimmer).

Celia is desperate to become a writer and yearns to follow in Paul's footsteps: to escape the small town she calls home for Europe. Paul is persuaded to accept a high school teaching position by his former principal, and he quickly recognises Celia's burgeoning talent.

Despite warnings from his brother and Jackie, Paul allows the girl to visit him at home, in the hope that he can nurture her talent, including entering her into a writing competition. Local gossipmongers take little time in casting aspersions on a thirty-something's relationship with an impressionable teenage girl.

So when Celia disappears without trace, Paul becomes the chief suspect for her abduction, and possibly her murder.

In My Father's Den makes spectacular use of the vast mountainous landscapes of the South Island of New Zealand, tapping into the weird claustrophobia of the tiny communities that nestle in this orchard-growing land.

Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh contrasts the earth tones of the land with the ever-changing blossom of the fruit trees and the snowy white hilltops; beauty concealing such terrible dark secrets.

Macfadyen brings a quiet intensity to his role and he revels in the ambiguity and complexity of the character so we are never entirely sure of Paul's innocence or guilt. Writer-director Brad McGann sustains the tension well, fuelling the atmosphere of suspicion and unease with a melancholic rock and classical soundtrack.

See it at Lighthouse (not Sun)