It is reassuring to know that passionate love can strike in the `sunset' years of life, and doubly poignant when one's `first love' is re-lived all over again.

That is the case with Claire and Andreas who, half a century after their tumultuous affair in post-war Belgium, re-meet and, to their joy -- and others' consternation -- discover that the flames of passion still smoulder.

Australian director Paul Cox, has swept the prizes at the Australian Independent Film Awards with "Innocence'', and may well do so in Bermuda's Film Festival with this enchanting story of enduring love.

It is an unusual film in that it provides a superb vehicle for `older' actors -- a chance that the three protagonists, Julia Blake, Charles Tingwell and Terry Norris seize with relish.

Any fears that this is a film primarily appealing to `the wrinklies' are cast away with Cox's use of constant silent flash-backs to the lovers' youthful affair which, of course, provide plenty of opportunities for the lushly filmed sight of young, nubile and heaving flesh.

Claire (Blake), who since her long, dull and passionless marriage has assumed that "happiness was living for other people'' is disabused of this notion when her former lover, musican and writer Andreas (Tingwell), on discovering they live in the same city, contacts her.

And so, although hair has greyed and demeanour is less sprightly than in the spring of youth, the affair blossoms and is consummated once again.

So far, so good, but as is the case so often in life, there is a proverbial fly in the ointment and, giving this film its psychological twist, the fly is Claire's husband, elderly but also hale and hearty (if lacking in the passion department) -- and not about to be abandoned by his wife at almost 70, for another man.

As he remarks to their doctor son, "Love at her age? It's ridiculous!'' Recklessly, however, Claire and Andreas, make up for lost time as they re-discover and celebrate their love.

Confronted with the truth of the situation, her husband realises, too late, that his feelings for her, too long taken for granted and certainly too long repressed, burst in a torrent of rueful love.

Funny, touching and, ultimately, a tear-jerker, this beautifully shot film (by Tony Clark and Jan Vancaillie) in Belgium and Australia, strikes chords of recognition all the way through; this is in no small part due to Paul Cox's script where observations on the sometimes surprising human condition are couched in language that is witty, poignant and often profound.

There are some wonderful touches in this film, such as the snatches of soaring organ music played by Andreas, a rivetting scene in a cemetery where, in the interests of burgeoning real estate requirements, widower Andreas watches his wife's remains being dug up for transfer to a new cemetery where land is less `prime', and Claire's husband's community choir belting out a rendition of `I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen' (finally breaking the dam of his stunted emotions).

Julia Blake, Charles Tingwell and Terry Norris turn in superb performances, conveying a sometimes bewildering mix of humour, tenderness, abandonment, defeat and hope as they go through the discovery of, and confrontation with their own emotions and heightened sense of being.

Innocence is showing at the Little Theatre at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday