Synopsis

After traveling to India and embracing a spiritual teacher, Ruth Barron is lured back to Australia by her worried family. They hire PJ Waters, an American exit counselor, to deprogram her in the remote outback. As their battle of wills grows increasingly intimate and unpredictable, both Ruth and PJ are forced to confront their beliefs, desires, and need for control.

Factoids & Trivia

• Jane Campion co-wrote the screenplay with her sister, Anna Campion, making the film another collaboration between the siblings.

• The production filmed in Delhi and Pushkar, India, as well as Sydney and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Interiors were shot at Fox Studios Australia.

• Although the Flinders Ranges locations were chosen for their hot, dry appearance, persistent rain turned the roads and sets into mud. Locals began calling the production team "the drought breakers."

• Angelo Badalamenti composed the score, which was supplemented by songs associated with performers including Annie Lennox, Alanis Morissette, Burt Bacharach, and Neil Diamond.

• The film premiered at the 56th Venice International Film Festival in 1999 before opening in the United States later that year.

• A famously unusual rehearsal anecdote involved Harvey Keitel improvising as a dog and asking Kate Winslet to play his owner. Winslet initially assumed he was joking, then continued when she realized he was serious.

• The film divided critics on release, with its daring performances and provocative treatment of spirituality and gender receiving both strong praise and sharp criticism.