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Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Ajyal Competition

Synopsis

Ricky is a Very Bad Egg, or so claims frighteningly enthusiastic child-services office Paula when she drops him off with Bella and Hec – the latest in a series of foster parents for the sullen young urban “gangsta”. This set-up is the boy’s last chance to get on the straight and narrow before he is plucked out of the foster-care system and plonked into juvenile detention. Thanks to Bella’s penchant for killing with kindness, it looks like the delinquent-in-training just might get his act together at last.

But things don’t exactly go according to plan; cut to Ricky running off into the wilderness, where he proves more than a little inept at looking after himself. What once looked like a happy, if slightly off-kilter, family drama becomes a comic romp of farcical proportions when Uncle Hec comes looking for his young charge and the odd pair wind up on the lam, trying to stay one step ahead of the possibly unhinged Paula.

Director Taika Waititi is no stranger to gently twisted humour, as he demonstrated in his 2014 charmer ‘Boy’; here, he carefully intertwines off-the-hook wit, brilliant performances and a heartwarming story to provide a new take on the wilderness adventure story.

Credits

Director

Taika Waititi

Screenwriter

Taika Waititi, based on the book 'Wild Pork and Watercress' by Barry Crump

Producer

Carthew Neal, Leanne Saunders, Taika Waititi, Matt Noonan

Editor

Luke Haigh, Tom Eagles, Yana Gorskaya

Music

Lukasz Buda, Samuel Scott, Conrad Wedde

Cinematographer

Lachlan Milne

Sales Company

Protagonist Pictures

Production Company

Piki Films, Defender Films, Curious Film

Distributor

Front Row Filmed Entertainment

Cast

Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Tiorere Ngatai-Melbourne

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