Of the picture's source 'Rain' (1994) novel, the film's director Christine Jeffs said: ''I really loved the sense of atmosphere and foreboding in the novel and also the reflection on childhood...The sense of transience in that relationships come and go and that the moment is precious''. The challenge for Jeffs was to recreate those elements in the medium of film. She added: ''I spent a long time trying to persuade other people that there was a film in there. A story about the detail of everyday life, that was worth translating to the screen.''
Authoress Kirsty Gunn's source 'Rain' (1994) novel is set at Lake Taupo and the filmmakers considered this place as a filming location. ''It didn't really have the same variety of texture and atmosphere that a place like this did which is more estuary and tidal orientated, but has the mud flats and big wide open spaces,'' said director Christine Jeffs, who added, ''water was important. It didn't need to be a lake, and it didn't need to be the sea. It was just about water.''
Debut theatrical feature film written and directed by writer-director Christine Jeffs whose script for the film was also her first produced screenplay for a cinema movie.
Writer-director Christine Jeffs spent about four years on the screenplay adapting Kirsty Gunn's 'Rain' (1994) novel. Jeffs commented: ''This is my first film script, and I learned a lot from the process of writing it.''
The film received Official Selection in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 competing in competition for the Golden Camera award.