Matt Mitcham

Matt Mitcham is the man everyone in this small New Zealand town is afraid of, a rough-hewn patriarch with sons who do his bidding and a hand in every local grudge and deal. When his twelve-year-old daughter Tui turns up pregnant and then vanishes, his fury and grief become the storm the whole investigation has to move through.

Peter Mullan gives Matt a physical menace that never tips into cartoon villainy — he's frightening because he's plausible, a man who loves his family and destroys people in the same breath. The writing keeps him unpredictable, tender one scene and terrifying the next, so you're never sure which Matt you're getting, and neither is he.