The beautiful plains of the Namibian desert are the setting of this emotionally fuelled story of white park ranger Anna (Otto) and her attempts to save a herd of elephants from extinction at the hands of poachers.

Desperately trying to convince the local tribes that the occasionally destructive elephants shouldn't be killed for either their meat or their ivory tusks, Anna falls in love with black American lawyer Stone (Washington), who's been entranced by the beauty of the scenery and this feisty ranger.

Writer-director Elaine Proctor's second feature (after her 1993 debut, "Friends", about the end of South African apartheid) looks absolutely stunning. The golden-red vistas of the desert plains, broken only by the movement of the elephant herd, offer a terrific sense of the isolation that dominates the relationships between her characters.

Separated by race, nationality and their conflicting needs, Anna and the local tribe form an uneasy alliance. Yet the real threat to her plans comes from those she holds dear to her, interpreter Naniserri (Kandjoze) and her Lutheran preacher brother Marius (Chameleon), who resents the blossoming love affair between Stone and his sister.

Despite its great cast (Otto and Stone are well-known faces, with Otto appearing in the next two "Lord of the Rings" films) and some wonderful cinematography, "Kin" never manages to overcome the limitations of Proctor's less-than-convincing script. The best moments focus on the near-incestuous relationship between Anna and her brother as Chris Chameleon teases out the subtleties of his repressed sexual feelings with a truly disturbing intensity which climaxes in a highly-charged dance to "I Heard it Through the Grapevine".

Going for broad strokes rather than nuances, and with an uplifting conclusion that rings completely false, "Kin" suggests that Proctor's directorial talent is far more honed than her writing.