10 Films to watch before you go to New Zealand
You’ve almost certainly seen Lord of the Rings & the Hobbit. While these films feature New Zealand landscape, a Kiwi director and a significant number of Kiwi actors, New Zealand film has so much more to offer. Although film developed relatively late in the 20th century, with most well known films coming in the 1980s and afterwards, there has been an explosion in good filmmaking since. These films offer insight into Kiwi culture in a way that isn’t accessible through history books or museum exhibitions.
10 sounds like a lot right? You won’t regret any of them (unless you can’t handle gore, in which case skip number 8).
The Piano
The first Kiwi film to win an Oscar for famed director Jane Campion (plus 2 other wins, and 5 nominations), The Piano is often seen as the film which showed New Zealand to the world. The story tells of a mute woman who, upon arriving in New Zealand for marriage to an unknown man, is forced to leave her beloved instrument on the beach. She eventually gets it back, through complicated means which draws her further into the strange world of early settlers.
2. Heavenly Creatures (1994)
An early Peter Jackson film depicting true events in Christchurch in 1954 when two teenage girls murdered the mother of one of them to prevent them being separated. The film focuses on the friendship between the two girls, from different social backgrounds, and the fantasy world they built together to escape their regular lives. Cutting between their dream sequences and the tension-filled relationships of their regular life it was Jackson’s first foray into a genre outside horror. It was nominated for an Oscar, and despite a positive critical and popular reception, didn’t win.
3. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
A comedy from up-and-coming director Taika Waititi. This film features a young, overweight Maori boy called Ricky Baker who is sent to a new foster family due to his disruptive ways. Living on an extremely rural landholding (where his foster parents regularly hunt wild boar with only knives) he changes his way, until tragedy forces him to escape into the surrounding bush. He is accompanied by his gruff foster father, who initially wants nothing to do with him but gradually teaches him the ways of the bush. The whole time both are relentlessly pursued by an official from social services who describes herself as ‘relentless, like the Terminator’.
4. What We Do in the Shadows (2015)
Another, earlier classic from Taika Waititi, this is filmed in mock-documentary style, about a group of 4 vampires living in modern day Wellington. Filled with typically dry Kiwi humour, the film brings vampire lore up to date with hilarious consequences - for example, while preparing for a night out the roommates are forced to make artists impressions of each other, as none can see their reflections in mirrors.
5. Gallipoli (1981)
Although technically this film is about the Australian experience of the First World War, including quite a few scenes set in Australia itself, it’s a fascinating perspective on the Gallipoli campaign. A young Mel Gibson stars as a cynical bushman who slowly gets sucked into the patriotism of the Great War, only to be disappointed by the reality. Directed by Peter Weir, the film is widely acknowledged to be a masterpiece and was a significant reason for the rise in interest about Gallipoli in Australia and New Zealand.
6. Out of the Blue (2006)
Based on the Aramoana massacre of 1990, when a local man killed 13 in a small, idyllic village near Dunedin. The events sparked a national debate about gun control, resulting in much stronger restrictions on ownership and management. The film itself had good reviews but courted controversy during filming when residents of Aramoana refused to allow filming to take place in the village.
7. Black Sheep (2006)
If you’re a fan of the ridiculous and violent, similar to classics such as Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, then Black Sheep will satisfy. Standing as the Kiwi contribution to the genre, Black Sheep takes on the oft-cited statistic that sheep outnumber humans in New Zealand and crafts a zombie-esque narrative around it. After some problematic genetic testing in rural New Zealand, timid sheep are transformed into rampaging, murderous zombie-sheep who run havoc. Every single instance of sheep-related humour is referenced and exploited.
8. Braindead (1992)
Not to be confused with an American horror film of the same name, this was one of Peter Jackson’s early films. Described as a ‘splatstick zombie comedy’ it involves a village being turned into zombies by a Sumatran rat-monkey. The film was not a success at the time, but has since gleaned some fame as a cult classic, particularly in recent years since the ascension of Peter Jackson to world renown.
9. Once Were Warriors (1994)
A film that polarized New Zealanders over its perspective of Maori culture. Based on a novel by Alan Duff portraying life in a majority-Maori housing estate in Auckland, it tells the story of one family who struggle with every issue under the sun - domestic violence, addictions, paedophilia, suicide, gang warfare etc. While some have called out the film as portraying Maori in a reductive and problematic light, the story is based on the childhood experiences of Duff himself. In 2014 it was voted New Zealand’s best film.
10. Whale Rider (2002)
A more charming, low-key counterpart to Once Were Warriors, this 2002 film also portrays a Maori community which has somewhat lost its way, but in a much gentler format. Based on a novel by famed Maori author Witi Ihimaera it tells the story of Pai, a young girl whose grandfather is the village leader. Leadership in the village is patrilineal, but Pai’s father refuses to lead preferring instead to live abroad with his new, non-Maori wife. Pai’s grandfather is loving but dismissive of her, while she is convinced she is intended to be the next leader of the village. The quiet struggle between the two ends up involving the entire village, concluding in a visually stunning finale.