Pike River is a perfect film
"Impeccable filmmaking. Terrific film. Take tissues," says New Zealand filmmaker and documentary expert, Dame Gaylene Preston.
Every now and then, a film comes along that completely satisfies; speaks to your own sensibilities and is riveting from the first to the last frame. Pike River is that film for me.
I grew up under those mountains and I can remember how the community lived in the shadow of mine disasters (Brunner, Dobson, Strongman). As the song says, blood is the price of coal. Every miner and every miner’s wife knows this.
The underground explosion at the Pike River mine on 19 November 2010 was a killer. 28 men went to work that morning and did not return. Their bodies remain buried in the mountain.
Pike River Director Rob Sarkies explored the terrifying Aramoana killings of 1990 in his film Out of the Blue, and has once more found compelling ground for authentic cinematic storytelling in the terrible tragedy of the mine explosion and the criminal lies and deceit that followed for years as the community got kicked from pillar to post by the police procedures, the legal establishment, and the John Key National Government.
This is a complex tale, as events unravel in secret 'back room' deals that impact on the grief-stricken families mourning their loved ones, while trying to hold solidarity within the group in order to fight to bring their men home. But the bad news keeps coming.
By focusing on two women who just refuse to be duped, strangers who forged a deep friendship over the years of struggle, scriptwriter Fiona Samuel has delivered clarity and emotional truth that leaps off the page and onto the screen.
The actors all know how to deliver engaging cinematic authenticity - none more than the two leads Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm, who deliver career defining performances - these are ably supported by a strong group of supporting actors: Lucy Lawless, Errol Shand, Madeleine McCarthy, Ben Porter, Jonathon Hendry to name just a few.
https://www.sff.org.au/program/event/pike-river/
This is mature filmmaking in the hands of a committed director with experience and empathy. The mark of a good director is that everyone does their best work, in front and behind the camera.
Gin Loane's cinematography has depth and feeling, capturing those towering mountains that contrast so completely with the humble lives of the people who live under them.
The domestic world of the families become somehow elevated, as the personal experiences of Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osbourne become central and heroic.
Pike River vividly illuminates an entire sorry tale of destructive neoliberalism laid bare.
