This film is now showing on cable here in Australia, and is a far better than average offering.

Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film is a powerful family drama set in the sixties in the south of the USA. It stars Samuel L Jackson as a small town doctor with a wandering eye. The story is told from the viewpoint of his middle child, Eve, wonderfully played by Jurnee Smollett, who sees her middle-class family life threatened by her father's infidelities.

No tale set in a bayou village could exist without references to black magic and voodoo, and this film also has them as a rather central part of the plot. But these elements are handled skilfully and believably, and heighten the tension that develops.

One of the interesting tools used by Lemmons is to tell and retell a story from different characters' perspectives, asking the viewer to determine which is more truthful, and indeed, whether the truth is paramount.

Jackson gives a sparkling performance as Dr Louis Batiste, a man of warmth and generosity who is well regarded by the local community that he serves. His family is seemingly a happy and close one, until the children begin to question some of the adult behaviour they witness.

Jurnee Smollett's Eve is the main protagonist around whom much of the story is centred, and she effortlessly moves back and forth between being a precocious brat and a young woman with powerful emotions. The rest of the cast is also very good, including a voluptuous Lisa Nicole Carson as the temptress Mattie Mereaux, and Diahann Carroll as a bayou witch.

This film moves along at a good pace and is a little more than you might expect.

The story is set in 1962 Louisiana. The Batiste family is headed by charming doctor Louis (Sam Jackson). Though he is married to beautiful Roz, he has a weakness for attractive female patients. One night Louis trysts with married and sexy Metty Mereaux, not knowing that he is observed by his youngest daughter Eve, who is there by accident.

The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert naming it the best film of 1997. Despite the praise, it seems to have been largely forgotten, and did not merit a single Oscar nomination that year. Going in to the picture today (2016), I had never heard of it, nor did I have a clue what it was about.

The best part of this movie is that you can never be sure how much is real. Because most of it is told through the eyes of a 10-year old, some things may be misunderstood or distorted. A second viewing might be helpful.

Probably the most impressive thing about Kasi Lemmons's "Eve's Bayou" is that it shows the characters on their own terms; that is, they don't exist in relation to white people (contrast that with movies where the African-American character is "the black friend"). But even beyond that, the movie has a lot to offer. It's one of the many serious movies told from a child's point of view. In this case, a girl in 1962 Louisiana witnesses her father committing adultery. What follows is a melange of shattered innocence, voodoo mysticism, and other things.

It's not a great movie, but I liked the storytelling and the incorporation of the mix of cultures. It's not like any other movie that you've seen. In addition to Samuel L. Jackson (not using his important word) and Lynn Whitfield, the cast includes Debbi Morgan, Diahann Carroll and Jurnee Smollett (more recently the star of "Lovecraft Country").