WHITEBAIT AND BLACK BEER FOR STRANGERS SYDNEY PREMIERE
By Greg Tourelle of NZPA

Sydney, Sept 29 - A slice of West Coast life came to Sydney tonight for the Sydney premiere of New Zealand film Perfect 
Strangers.

Guests at a Tourism New Zealand function at Fox Studios tonight feasted on whitebait patties and quaffed Monteith's beer 
before the screening.

West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor was present, along with the film's director, writer and co-producer Gaylene Preston.

Among the glitterati on the guest list were singer Marcia Hines and actors Bryan Brown, David Wenham and Rachael Blake, the 
film's female star.

She couldn't hold back her glee when told about the beer tonight. "I haven't had a Monteith's in a year. I drank a few black 
beers on the West Coast", she told NZPA.

Perfect Strangers was filmed on the West Coast last year. Preston describes it as a "chilling romance, a macabre fairy tale".

It involves Blake's character Melanie sailing away to the castle of a handsome stranger, played by New Zealand acting star 
Sam Neill.

"I suppose you could say it is the quintessential `Man Alone' story turned around on itself", Preston said. Neill couldn't 
make the premiere because he was filming Wimbledon, a tennis love story, in Britain.

But his production colleague at Huntaway Films, Jay Cassells, accepted the Maori challenge at a powhiri before the film 
screening tonight.

Cassells, Neill and New Zealand expatriate comedian John Clarke formed Huntaway Films to develop and produce New Zealand 
and Australian film and television projects.

The company combined with Preston and Robin Laing to make Perfect Strangers.
It is hard for New Zealand films to crack the Australian market, but 20th Century Fox has shown confidence by buying the 
distribution rights for Australia.

Preston said it would open in New Zealand in February, with special showings in Auckland and Greymouth and a charity 
preview in Westport in November.She acknowledged the film was tackling the 'difficult market' first in Australia. "But I 
think there is a sea-change that is occurring and this film has got two stars in Australia" Rachael Blake and Sam Neill. 
"I don't think anybody has made a New Zealand film which opened in Australia first, so we are blazing a trail maybe", 
Preston told NZPA. 

I would say five to seven years ago we were a mere blip on the meter here, but it seems to me know we are starting to 
fill a bit of a place where we are the romantic, edgy, brave part of the Australian arts scene.