"Films like the The silence Of The Lambs are too far from the rest of our lives. I could never go that far in a film." But as Anna Campion (sister of the globally renowned Janel) discovered, blood-and-guts psychopathic thrillers lure financial backers; psychological studies, like her debut feature Loaded, do not. Fortunately, the financing eventually flowed forth, with the largest backer a fellow New Zealander, "probably because he didn't back The Piano, my sister's film."

Screened at this year's Venice Film Festival, Loaded (ignore its gun-wielding titlel explores the psych es of a group of modern middle-class friends who, while tripping out on drugs, commit murder. "lts not the easiest of films," Campion admits, but it managed to survive Venice's notorious screening hysteria to attract a distributor in the cutthroat US market.

Following in the footsteps of her theatrical parents, Anna began her career as an actress before escaping the claustrophobia of celebrity family status for the comparative anonymity of London's Royal College of Art I"so misogynistic, they would have picked all boys if they could"). After completing her studies, she made two shorts, The Audition and Broken Skin, with Miranda Richardson, both of which created a buzz.

Now Campion is back in Sydney writing a '.Last Tango In Australia" with Jane, dispeIling any notion that the Campion sisters are locked in a competitive struggle for cinematic match points: ,. Jane started directing a lot earlier than me: she's made five movies, I've made one. It makes things a lot easier."

Loaded is showing at this month's London Film Festival and wil1 be released in the UK in 1995.