Writer/director Elaine Proctor has a feel for the beauty of the Namibian landscape. But her core story of the struggles of conservation worker Anna (Otto) to protect a herd of elephants staggers under the weight of bolted-on lumps of unnecessary plot.
Take Anna's fast-growing romance with American lawyer Stone (Washington) and his internal debate over whether to go back to the legal rat-race, or Anna's relationship with her missionary brother Marius (Chameleon), where evening hair-brushing sessions might hint at something more unsettling.
Throwing them into the mix along with topics such as the value of friendship, sexism and patronisation of the Third World, Kin touches on too many themes without ever getting its teeth stuck into any single one.