Even for a brother and sister living out in the Namibian desert, Anna and Marius are a bit of an odd couple.

He's a Lutheran pastor with an unhealthy resemblance to a downbeat Chris de Burgh and feelings for his sister which may not be strictly honourable.

She's a bit of a hand-wringing liberal who assuages any guilt she may have about colonial imperialism by working for a wildlife conservation service.

Anna, played by Lord Of The Rings star Otto, is particularly obsessed with the fate of a herd of desert elephants, who nightly tramp past their farmhouse, and is concerned they don't "end up as ashtrays in Taiwan".

When one is shot, the finger of blame is pointed at local Himba villagers and one of them is soon passing the time in the slammer courtesy of the zealous local police. However, while trailing the poachers, Anna realises the guilty man is none other than her trusted right-hand man Naniserri (Kandjoze).

But before she can question him, a paramilitary 'shoot-to-kill' helicopter conservation unit drops out of the sky and blasts him away. You couldn't imagine TV vet Trude Mostue taking a similar line. A distraught Anna finds solace in the arms of black American lawyer Stone (Washington), a state of affairs viewed dimly by the jealous Marius (Chameleon).

The phrase 'writer/ director' should set alarm bells ringing with any cinema-goer because very few people are gifted enough to excel at both jobs. Proctor clearly has a love and knowledge of the African desert and people... but her politically correct view of the world throttles any authenticity from what would be a promising storyline.

Otto's Anna is an annoyingly shrill creation, while Stone - for all his insistence that he's an 18hrs-a-day hotshot lawyer - still seems to have time for basketball practice and random trips into the desert.

It all gets a bit daft - part moralising fable and part pseudo thriller - and the only stars to emerge with any credit are the amused Himba villagers and the stunning scenery.

Tim Evans