NZIFF: Head South

Christchurch-born filmmaker Jonathan Ogilvie returns home for this evocative coming-of-age story that brilliantly captures the feeling of growing up weird in the Garden City. Starring Ed Oxenbould, Márton Csókás and featuring Stella Bennett aka Benee in her acting debut.

Drawing from his own experience growing up in Christchurch in the 1970s and ’80s, Jonathan Ogilvie’s warmly engaging film delves beneath the city’s prim and proper exterior to portray its nascent post-punk underground. A scene which would later birth the record label Flying Nun, that would go on take South Island music to the world.

Ed Oxenbould stars as teenaged Angus who has been left alone for a fortnight with his old-school civil engineer father Gordon (Márton Csókás). It’s 1979 and long hair is out, and spiky hair is in. While visiting the local record shop Angus’s mind and the film literally expands on first listening to Public Image Limited, Johnny Rotten’s post-Sex Pistols band. Soon enough Angus has turned his flared trousers into stovepipes, repurposed Gordon’s wedding shoes as a pair of winklepickers and visits the hair salon to lay waste to his flowing locks.

Angus becomes drawn both to sexy punk chick Holly (Roxie Mohebbi), who claims to be from London, and a musically talented shopgirl Kristen, played by Stella Bennett, better known as homegrown popstar Benee. Convinced to attend a gig by popular local band The Cursed, Angus is bullied by the sneery lead singer and claims to have his own band, only to be put into a position to back up this little white lie when he’s asked to open The Cursed’s next show before even learning to play. Can you get more punk rock?