The shadow of colonialism looms large over the fact-based drama Muru. Audiences were blown away when this response to 2007’s police raids on the Tūhoe community opened the 2022 New Zealand International Film Festival—not least of all Flicks’ Rachel Ashby, whose glowing review says Muru is “a masterclass in storytelling, proving that sometimes fiction can get us closer to truth than any documentary”.
Muru is in New Zealand cinemas now, and moviegoers around the country have seen what all the fuss is about, with Muru opening at top spot at the Aotearoa weekly box office—a position it looks like it might hold for a second week in a row.
Directed by Tearepa Kahi (Mt. Zion), Muru stars the legendary Cliff Curtis as local cop Sergeant ‘Taffy’ Tāwharau who spends most days dealing with low key trouble, caring for his ageing father, and driving the local school bus. He unexpectedly finds himself the man of the moment, caught between the local community and the elite Armed Offenders Squad and Special Tactics Group, led on screen by Jay Ryan (Top of the Lake) and Manu Bennett (Spartacus, Arrow).
When the latter descend on Te Urewera valley looking for terrorist training camps, they find little evidence of wrongdoing for their trouble. It’s a story grounded in fact, the 2007 raids really happened, but the fiery direction Kahi takes the film is fueled by centuries of colonial violence—the grievances at the core of the story are all too real.
Perhaps the best evidence of that is the fact that renowned Tūhoe community leader and activist Tāme Iti plays himself. Iti’s presence in the film could attract accusations of bias, so is Muru a real life drama, a print-the-legend piece of agitprop, a vital and rightfully angry work of New Zealand cinema, or all three? There’s only one way to find out…
