Article - The Sunday Mail, Sunday 15th June, 2008

Love is in the air

Compelling performances bythe two central characters outweigh a climactic
letdown, writes Chris Bartlett

A RECLUSIVE Australian farmer has his lonely existence interrupted
when a bloody and beaten Afghan woman staggers on to his property
and collapses in this slow-burning Queensland-filmed romance/thriller.

Essentially a two-hander with nicely tuned performances from William
McInnes and Dutch actor Monic Hendrickx, Unfinished Sky is let
down only by an implausible climax. Still, you can't help but be
drawn in by these two badly damaged characters as they each rediscover,
through each other, their faith in humanity.

As expected, despite the language and cultural barriers, a bond develops
between them until there's the unmistakable scent of love
in the air, though events threaten to overtake them.

Writer-director Peter Duncan (Children of the Revolution) has based
the story on a 1998 Dutch film, The Polish Bride, in which an eastern
European woman forced into prostitution escapes from her pimp
and is taken in by a farmer.

Hendrickx reprises that role here, rewritten as Afghan illegal immigrant
Tahmeena who, almost literally, falls at the feet of McInnes's
widowed farmer, John, who takes her in, cleans her up and then
hides her, lying to the sleazy pub owner (Bille Brown) and the
town cop (David Field) searching for her.

Through grainy black-and-white flashbacks it becomes clear Tahmeena
has escaped from a hellish life as a small-town sex slave. Her
plight as an illegal immigrant and prize booty for low-lifes gives
the film its underlying menace.

But at its heart is the rehabilitation of the two central characters.
McInnes is especially good as the guarded but vulnerable John,
a good-looking man who's let himself go since the traumatic death
of his wife. This performance is up there with his work in the
excellent Look Both Ways.

Hendrickx, who speaks (unsubtitled) Dari for most of the film, is
clearly at home in her role, and deserves some sort of prize for
being the quickest student of English ever.