The third feature in 21 years from Australia's highly regarded director Ray Lawrence is a complex tapestry of moral threads. The story itself is simple, of four men going fishing. However, halfway through the film an event occurs that causes repercussions for the group and unwinds a complex string of insights into the Australian psyche.

The Edinburgh Film Festival premiere was introduced by lead actor Gabriel Byrne and described as a "multi-layered story." Indeed there is a lot going on under the surface of seemingly still water of Jindabyne.

Jindabyne itself is a town in the Snowy Mountains, not far from Sydney, moved from its original location to create a dam for the generation hydroelectric power. In a sense, the old town is lost, like Atlantis. Jindabyne the movie deals with displacement on many different levels, from the characters' interaction with the local Aboriginal people (also displaced from their homes) to the dislocation and awkwardness many Australian men feel towards women. There is much unresolved conflict within the town of Jindabyne and this deceptively simple story peels back the layers of the characters like peeling skins off an onion. It's uncomfortable at times, and likely to bring a dampness to the eye.

The production is faultless, the Australia landscape revealed in authentically over exposed tones, jarring to the eye. Anyone who has "gone bush" will be able to relate to the harshness of the landscape, the inhospitability to the human visitor. Likewise the characters living in such an environment have developed a harshness of character, a distance in their relationships. Byrne plays Stewart Kane, an Irishman living in Australia still clinging to Catholic traditions, which seems incongruous in his new country. At the same time, he is trying to come to terms with his Australian wife Claire (Laura Linney). Both actors are mesmerising in their portrayal of a marriage thinly held together, more out of necessity than of love. In fact the whole cast put in tour-de-force performances, this film is going to become a classic.

All Australians must see this film, it is a powerful insight into an Australian way of being which I never expected to see portrayed so accurately and sensitively on the big screen. Jindabyne is one of the movies that will stay with you long after you have left the cinema. Absolutely brilliant.