With its unpredictable ending and offbeat storyline, Strange Fits Of Passion fits snugly into the non-genre of anti-romantic comedy. Writer/director Elise McCredie, not much older than the central character (known only as She) in her debut film, admits that she has drawn partly from her own experiences. She also hastens to point out that the details are different, even if the elements of the emotions are similar.

Strange Fits Of Passion is a girl's rite of passage. A young Melbourne woman is scrambling through the bushes of sexual identity, fantasising about losing her virginity.

Counselled by her best (gay) friend, Jimmy, She tussles with every aspect of sex, from the notions of what is romance and love, to what is sex and with whom she should do it. But the film takes a dramatic turn away from the often comic journey of the girl to a profound exploration of the complexity of human relationships.

"I'd never seen a film exploring a young woman's sexuality," says McCredie, an actor, writer, director and graduate of Melbourne University and the Victorian College of the Arts. "I wanted to explore the confusion surrounding sex, love, sexuality and gender politics - so I decided to write a film that I wanted to see."

The lead character has no name, so as to symbolise the lack of clear identity, according to McCredie. All the same, Michela Noonan manages to convey a person behind the symbol, and with Mitchell Butel's effortless performance, the two central characters generate plenty of empathy. "The film will appeal to anyone who's ever had sex," says Butel, non-restrictively.

The film's producer, Lucy Maclaren, was invited onto the project by executive producer Tim White. By then the finance was largely in place, from the Film Finance Corporation, ABC Television, Arena (pay TV) and Film Victoria. ABC invested cash and resources, and Beyond Films picked up the film on completion for international sales, prior to the film's acceptance into the Critics' Week program.

"I came into it with a strong sense that the performances were the key to it working," says Maclaren (the cast spent three solid weeks in rehearsal). "I'd say it's a fairly wide art-house picture, especially strong in the 18 to 35 range. But it's amazing how other age groups also connect with it." Andrew L Urban