An assured dramatic debut and a film of striking formal sophistication, Duncan's intimate and meticulously observed family drama gives new meaning to the term "home movie".
In part that's because, as the title suggests, it's about a home: the modest house in the Waiheke bush in which Duncan spent the first 10 years of her life and where her father, Stuart, and stepmother, Meng, still live.
The film was conceived as a documentary when Stuart and Meng decided to leave the house for her native China, but when that plan was shelved, it morphed into something else. As the film tells a story of a couple, Stuart and Meng enact a directed version of themselves.
The result is equal parts documentary, drama and artwork on video. Duncan, who arrived at film-making from visual arts via dance and choreography, brings a refined aesthetic sensibility to bear, making a piece of work in which form and content are inseparable.
On the surface of it, it's a story of an unorthodox couple living a reclusive, even primitive, lifestyle which is interrupted when one must attend to the needs of an ageing parent.
