The Australian Jack lives in Papua New Guinea. Rose, the women he loved dearly, died unexpectedly years before. During a business trip, Jack meets the writer Kate and falls head over heels in love. She is charmed by Jack and accompanies him to the tropics to do research for her new book. Life with Jack in a small remote village by the Sepik River is however everything but paradise. Dark secrets are hidden in the jungle. Slowly but surely Jack is pulled back into the past and again confronted with the disturbing death of his wife. The negative sides of his earlier marriage turn against him in his new relationship with Kate. She is dragged along in Jack’s obsessive relationship with his dead wife. She starts to lose her own identity and has to fear for her life.To Have and to Hold is a compelling romance noir, in which the echo of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Rebecca can be heard as the lovetriangle between Jack, Kate and Rose starts to acquire less commonplace forms. The heat, the landscape and the unusual culture of Papua New Guinea play an important role, alongside the soundtrack by the inimitable Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld.
