By Christine Westwood
Unearthly choral music plays as we fly over New Zealand’s primal forests, transporting us instantly into a mythic tale. This is Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Taika Waititi’s (Boy, What We Do In The Shadows) adaptation of Barry Crump’s much loved tale, Wild Pork And Watercress. The film follows the adventures of tearaway street kid, Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison), who, in a last ditch attempt to get him on the straight and narrow, is fostered out to Bella (Rima Te Wiata), a relentlessly cheerful farmer who treats the boy like family. Less welcoming is Hec (Sam Neill), Bella’s taciturn bushman husband, who would rather be hunting pigs than dealing with a city teenager. Events conspire to strand Hec and Ricky in the woods, and the two must learn to work together when the world believes that Hec has kidnapped the kid.
The wild landscape and the belligerent city kid make a comic contrast. As in the visually creative Boy, the truth of abused, abandoned kids is elevated by Waititi’s warmth, humour, and unpatronising style. His is an open view rather than judging. “I keep journals, and I’m always writing,” Waititi told FilmInk just before the film’s debut at The Sundance Film Festival. “I don’t usually write the script until the very last stage. That’s when I type the pages, but that’s after I’ve been writing notes and figuring out what the potential story is in my head. My directing style is very changeable, because it depends on how much time we’ve got to do a scene, and how much money we’ve got. You can’t always give it the time that it should have, and sometimes you’ve got to rush and come up with solutions on the spot. Usually it’s relaxed, as I’m a relaxed person with a relaxed style. I’m an actor so I like actors. It’s about being respectful while getting the job done.”
When asked what drew him to the story, Waititi laughs. “Unemployment mainly,” he replies. “I was sent a script a while ago. It’s a very well-known New Zealand book by one of our great writers. I’d grown up with it, and I know that a lot of people wanted to see it as a film. It’s an homage to 1980s Australasian filmmaking. There are a lot of zooms and cross fades; it’s like Roger Donaldson meets Chick Murphy. I grew up watching these crazy, whacky adventures. The world’s full of depressing films, so it’s okay to make something fun!”
Much of that fun emanates from the comic interplay and genuine chemistry between newcomer, Julian Dennison, and veteran Kiwi-gone-international, Sam Neill. Both were happy to roll with the film’s loose, freewheeling shoot. “I didn’t audition anyone,” Waititi explains. “I made a commercial with Julian once, and I was so impressed. 80% of the movie was shooting exteriors. We were out in the wilderness, and it was basically The Revenant, but with no money and no luxuries. There’s a snow scene that we didn’t plan for; it just snowed one day, so we said, ‘I guess some of the film is in the snow now.’”
FilmInk also caught up with Julian Dennison at The Sundance Film Festival. “This is my third film, and it’s my second at Sundance,” says the young actor, who has also appeared in the 2013 New Zealand flick, Shopping, and Robert Connolly’s 2014 hit, Paper Planes. “Taika is really good fun as a director. He knows how to bring out the best in you. He made me focus on what I was doing in the scenes, but he made it feel like fun and not hard work. It’s really cool working with him, and I learned a lot from him and Sam Neill. It was the best experience, and it became like a family with the cast and crew.”
Waititi began his career as a performer and comedian, playing stand-up gigs in New Zealand and creating his solo productions, Taika’s Incredible Show and Taika’s Incredibler Show. He has had a long-standing friendship and collaboration with Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords fame, including writing and acting together in the vampire mockumentary, What We Do In The Shadows. He starred in Boy, and was nominated for Best Actor at the Nokia Film Awards for his role in The Sarkies Brothers’ 2010 film, Scarfies. As if this wasn’t enough original output, Waititi is also an experienced painter and photographer, having exhibited both media in Wellington and Berlin. These days, he is focused more on writing and directing.
His ancestral background is a mix of Jewish and Maori. It is this strong indigenous element in Waititi’s films that brought representatives of On Native Ground to the red carpet at Sundance. “On Native Ground was started to provide role models for Native American kids across the US,” Executive Producer, Jack Kohler, explained. “A lot of them are still in reservations, and they don’t have a lot of native role models, especially in the media. Then we started having these native youth reporters, and that inspired others. We are creating more native content on TV, and the more exposure that gets, the more real stories get heard. You can’t really move into a future until you heal from what’s done and have it acknowledged. I like the fact that the Maoris have organised and created their own communities. They are still doing what they’ve been doing for thousands of years, and that’s inspiring, especially for natives in California. We do feel this kinship to the Pacific Islanders because they travelled to California. Our languages are very similar, and so are the markings on the face.”
From indigenous culture to New Zealand vampires and currently directing Chris Hemsworth in the superhero blockbuster, Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi has to be the last word in diversity – at least in terms of his career arc.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople is released in cinemas on May 26.
