John (Richard Thompson) suffers from amnesia. None of his memories go back further than four years although they do sometimes creep into his consciousness in the form of very disturbing dreams. His partner, Tanya (Rachael Gilchrist), on the other hand, simply sees the past as something to be left behind.

But on the whole, John and Tanya do enjoy an enviably idyllic life in New Zealand.

This all starts to unravel, however, when a stranger (Ray Trickitt) – one that is attracting a lot of very close monitoring – appears on the scene…

And that’s about as much synopsis as I can provide for Memories of Tomorrow without giving away far too much. The storytelling in this film is superb, but based around providing the audience with a steady stream of hints, clues, details and shadings, each building on what has gone before to not only drive the plot forward but also to construct an ever more detailed picture of who Richard and Tanya really are.

Indeed, much of the film is spent trying to figure out exactly what did happen in John’s past, how much Tanya knows, how much Tanya wants John to know and where the stranger fits into all of this.

This is a very effective approach and one that that draws you into the film and holds your attention throughout. But tt does, of course, depend very heavily not only on the quality of the dialogue and the strength of the characterisation, but also on the ability of the actors to bring their characters realistically and three-dimensionally to life.

So it’s nice to be able to say that, not only are the characters all very well drawn, and not only is the dialogue superbly naturalistic, but also that all three of the leads do an excellent job not only of carrying the story, but also of holding your interest in the emotional ups and downs that the characters go through.

And, for a $15,000 film, the production values are incredible. From the visually stunning opening scene – two men on a dune in the rain, which looks a lot better than it sounds – to the final denouement, the cinematography (New Zealand hasn’t looked this appealing to me since I saw The Lord of the Rings), the score and the design all conspire with the actors to deliver a truly powerful piece of cinema.

Memories of Tomorrow is a well written, well acted and genuinely enthralling story that manages to draw two very different genres into a unique and cohesive whole.

At heart, it is a spy story – although more along the lines of The Third Man than James Bond – but one in which the construction of the story, the strength of the characterisation and the performances of the cast combine to create a human drama which packs an emotional punch that you don’t tend to find in this – or any other - genre.

First time writer/director Amit Tripuraneni has just raised the bar for independent filmmakers several notches, and I will definately be looking out for what he does next.