So little of this New Zealand director's work is readily available, and
is so inter-connected, it seems presumptuous to judge her on the
strength of five very different feature films. Yet they all
demonstrate Campion's primary interest: the female psyche. Her main
characters – Dawn, Janet, Ada, Isabel and Ruth – all inhabit a fantasy
world that determines their existence in the real one, sometimes
overpowering it. Similarly, her experimental techniques have
occasionally detracted from her visionary abilities as a director who
pushes everything on the screen to its limits - one of the few currently
working to a definite agenda, and with international scope.
