Ben Apfelbaum

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE

Lead actor Sam Neill amongst the Festival throng. (c) Ben Apfelbaum.
Director Taika Waititi
Director Taika Waititi (c) Ben Apfelbaum

Based on a book entitled Wild Pork and Watercress by the late New Zealand folk hero/author Barry Crump, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE  was the first New Zealand movie to gross over a million dollars in its opening weekend there.

It follows the familiar movie tropes of a road journey (in this case the bush) and the cute kid melting the heart of a grumpy old man. However this does the film a great injustice as it mines these movie conventions with originality , humour and a lovely warmth combined with the extraordinary photography of the North Islands east coast wilderness.

If you are a fan of the deadpan, slightly surreal humour of The Flight Of The Conchords, which I was,  you will adore this film. This is no coincidence as the writer/director Taika Waititi has collaborated with the Conchord boys. One of them, Rhys Darby, has a hilarious role in the film as a character called Psycho Sam.

The film has deservedly won many international accolades including winning the best film  award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award.

Ricky Baker (charismatically played by Julian Dennison), a misguided city kid, is sent by Child Welfare Services to live in the country with foster parents, Aunt Bella and cantankerous Uncle Hec (Sam Neill).

As a result of Bella suddenly dying Child Services insist on taking Ricky back. Ricky for the first time has bonded with the family and runs into the bush with Uncle Hec in pursuit.

When Child Services arrive to find Ricky and Hec gone, they believe that Ricky has been kidnapped by an unstable, grieving  ex prisoner Hec. A national man hunt ensues and the mismatched fleeing duo must overcome their differences to survive.

The eccentric, zany characters create witty plot unpredictabilities. Sam Neill  does a lovely job progressing from a misanthropic, seemingly heartless old man as a result of his friendship with this charming sweet boy.

Julian Dennison matches Neill’s acting chops with warmth and believability such as their a real chemistry between the two. The idiosyncratic characters fill out the rich tapestry of this oddball comedic tale.

Highly recommended. Director Taika Waititi has a great sense of rhythm, varying from laughter to unexpected dramatic dramatic poignancy, which kept me entranced throughout.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.