Hunt for the Wilderpeople: Ten years of ‘the most New Zealand film ever made’

Sam Neill has seen iconic New Zealand film Hunt for the Wilderpeople twice. The first time was its premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and the second was last night at a 10th anniversary screening in Auckland.

“You had no idea what was going to happen there [at Sundance], whether the American audience are going to respond to it at all, but they were amazing,” Neill told RNZ at the Auckland cinema screening on Tuesday night.

The film tells the story of young urban misfit Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison), who sparks a national manhunt when he and foster ‘uncle’ Hector (Neill) escape into the bush.

New Lynn Reading Cinema was packed with fans for the special event, some young enough to be seeing the Taika Waititi-directed film for the first time.

A rollcall of stars showed up to mark the occasion including Waititi and actors Neill, Rachel House, Rima Te Wiata, Rhys Darby, Oscar Kightley, Troy Kingi, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Cohen Holloway, Mike Minogue and Hamish Parkinson.

Noticeably absent was the film’s young star, Julian Dennison, currently overseas filming How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Rhys Darby said the movie struck a cord with international audiences because it captured the Kiwi spirit in a way few had.

“I think this is the most New Zealand film ever made in some ways because of the comedy, because of the plethora of characters… how we kind of interact with each other,” Darby said.

“It’s so New Zealand and I think that really resonated with everyone overseas because it was like, ‘wow, these people are different, but they’re funny’.”