out into one of those depressing looks at World War Two and the horror of Nazi Germany -- complete with modern day scenes interspersed with old pictures of Hitler and marching soldiers. Fortunately this doesn't linger too long in the 1940s but does become incredibly melancholy and sometimes tedious.

Set in current day America, documentary filmaker Bill Hickcock and his team pursue an elderly German couple, Sam and Iris, living out their days in seclusion in deepest Wyoming.

Hickcock takes an irreverant look at life, death and taxidermy -- which Sam is a legend in, using the pretence of a documentary on taxidmery to interview a reluctant Sam, and immediately throws all sorts of thoughts up -- stuffed bodies, experiements, Nazis...and on.

The couples' home is particularly creepy, with animals, birds and even amphibians dotting the rooms, and it gets even creepier with their home-made puppets.

Hickcock soon realises there is more to this couple than meets the eye and has you thinking all sorts of possible scenarios.

Their life's project is gradually revealed as the film becomes more bizarre by the minute. At one point it seemed as though the couple would stop at nothing to protect their privacy, and in the next Sam has consented to an interview after just one refusal.

And although it seems they are trying to forget the war, they somehwat contradict it by the bizarre showing of their "play'' -- the narrative, which is annoyingly poetic, tries to explain it away as a healing of the past horrors they endured.

`Anima' is original in many senses, but obviously borrows scenes from other films.

The just-released-from-prison hillbilly neighbour with his "looks like we got a live `un here'' manner was straight out of `Deliverance' while the "stuffed'' Iris was reminiscant of the near-dead granny in `Texas Chain Saw Massacre', and the gradual revealing of the couples' inner sanctum was akin to scenes in Kiss the Girls, where a hidden side to life shows itself.

That said, the film has some great shots of the US countryside, with a beautiful, peaceful setting, deep in the heart of the woods -- contrasting to the grimy, scary streets of 1940s Germany.

A sometimes funny and sometimes very melancholy film, `Anima' does show the devotion of a couples' love through the years.

TIM GREENFIELD FILM REVIEW REV MPC