A Getting-to-know the Kiwis Movie

Since we’ve been in Whangarei for awhile now we’re trying to not  become POBs (prisoner of the boat), i.e. always working on boat projects. So, we’ve ventured out to an occasional movie date in town. We saw Hunt for the Wilderpeople the other evening. Wilderpeople here is drawn from wildebeest, the African herd animals that run like crazy across the savannahs.  It’s a very well done movie by local Kiwi director Taiki Waititi, based on the book Wild Pork and Watercress.
It’s the story of a cocky, defiant city kid (labeled ‘a very bad egg’ by his social worker) who is sent by Child Welfare Services to live with a warm, nurturing foster mother in a remote part of the country and the relationship that develops between the boy and the cantankerous old geezer who lives with the foster mother. NZ’s child welfare services doesn’t come off looking too good (as is currently the case in the news here unfortunately). And, since no movie is complete without one, there is a gratuitous car chase scene too.
The movie gives you a little insight into the understated Kiwi sense of humor (or humour) as well as some great shots of the gorgeous New Zealand landscape.

Definitely two thumbs up from the movie critics from the hamsters on Georgia. A ‘must see’ if it ever makes it’s way across the world.
Paul