A couple go to an island off of Papua New Guinea for field research.<BR>&nbsp;<BR>&nbsp;

A couple go to an island off of Papua New Guinea for field research.

Dr. Phillip Spence ( Martin Donovan) and his new wife, a former student Evelyn (Maya Stange) embark on a year-long study of sexual life in the Trobriand Islands. It`s the 1930`s. It`s not long before Evelyn`s eager to pursue her own investigations, because she believes her husband`s focus is ignoring the women. But she makes several mistakes, coming up against the Rev Ian MacGregor (John Howard) and the local administrator - Max Cullen. As well, a photograph she takes has terrible repercussions for a local couple. Her one ally is a trader Mick Carpenter (Rufus Sewell) who seems to blend with the natives and with the landscape despite the fact that he`s exploiting the situation... In a Savage Land has an extraordinary texture simply because Bill Bennett has taken the trouble to shoot this on location in the Trobriands. It`s fascinating. The film itself has resonances of a 1930`s melodrama but in a strange way Bennett and co-writer Jennifer Bennett avoid the obvious and push the characters to quite dramatic extremes. But I don`t think that the film ultimately delivers a satisfactory contemporary context. And the supporting characters of MacGregor and the administrator are oddly cliched. Maya Stange is a major new talent on screen, she`s so good in this and Martin Donovan and Rufus Sewell are too. But the other star of the film is cinematographer Danny Ruhlmann who`s an award-winning commercials photographer, this is his first feature and it looks stunning. David`s Comments:Visually breathtaking. The location filming on Trobriand Islands really gives you a feel for the place and its people. The first 2/3rds of the film are gripping, if at times a bit downbeat - the questions raised about the way Europeans treat the people of the islands are still relevant. Unfortunately, the love story fails to soar; it comes too late in the film, and it`s too uninvolving - Rufus Sewell is, I think, miscast as the Errol Flynn-type American trader. And some of the supporting characters, especially Max Cullen`s administrator, are caricatures. Maya Stange`s terrific in her first film.