\u201cOf course we\u2019ll sign,\u201d Ardern tells the pair in an office scene that includes a camera pan of the classic wartime American \u201cwe can do it\u201d poster.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Ardern was just seven weeks into the leadership of the Labour Party when it won enough seats to form a coalition Government with the Greens and NZ First. Andrew Little was named the new Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry and the Pike River Recovery Agency was created<\/a> as a standalone government department. (In 2021, that agency abandoned recovery plans, citing technical challenges and cost. More recently, police resumed borehole drilling and imaging and are currently in discussion with the Crown Solicitor<\/a> over whether to lay charges over the disaster).<\/p>\n Ardern received no payment for her appearance in the film. Sarkies was initially reluctant to discuss her involvement in the movie project, saying \u201cI think that sort of thing can take over what the film is actually about\u201d.<\/p>\n But, while he said it was not his intention to make a political film, he accepted the Pike River story was \u201cinherently\u201d political.<\/p>\n \u201cI think left versus right politics is often quite poisonous because it\u2019s all black and white, no grey. And there\u2019s a lot of grey. There are a lot of reasons Pike River happened that relates to both political parties going back 20 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t wanted to take sides, but I\u2019d be naive to think that Pike River isn\u2019t actually a political story. These families needed to bring politicians on side in order to get the thing they wanted. The families needed to \u2018manipulate\u2019 – in inverted commas – the politicians, because no one\u2019s got the money to get into that mine. You need the politicians to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Online movie information platform IMDb does not list Jacinda Ardern in the Pike River credits. The cast list shows former National Prime Minister John Key is played by Daniel Cleary and Stephen Bain appears as former Environment Minister Nick Smith. Actors also appear in non-speaking roles, playing the likes of National MPs Gerry Brownlee and Judith Collins, and NZ First leader Winston Peters.<\/p>\n Sarkies says the scene with Ardern, who moved to the United States in 2023 to take up a position at Harvard University<\/a>, was shot in New Zealand.<\/p>\n \u201cJacinda said yes, because she loves Sonya and Anna. She has visited Sonya, post being a politician, at her house in Christchurch. There was one cute moment Sonya told me about… Jacinda was visiting, and saw a poster and said \u2018that\u2019s funny, I had a poster just like that in my office\u2019. And Sonya says, \u2018yeah, Rob noticed that and he put it in the film and then he gave the poster to me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Pike River (which goes on general release from October 30) was made in association with the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, Three, the New Zealand Screen Production Rebate and Park Road Post Production.<\/p>\n Online records show it received $484,000 from NZ On Air in 2022. Meanwhile, the Film Commission this week confirmed almost $5m of funding, comprising $4,498,760 in rebates, equity funding of $1,922,100, development funding of $77,900 and an additional $20,000 in on-the-job industry support for a trainee director internship and a trainee producer attachment.<\/p>\n Ardern\u2019s brief appearance in the film is her second big screen moment this year. Prime Minister, chronicling her tenure as New Zealand\u2019s 40th Prime Minister, recorded the strongest opening week for a local documentary in seven years. Distribution company Rialto said the film had earned $417,000 in its first week<\/a>, including previews.<\/p>\n Ardern has also released two books this year – her memoir A Different Kind of Power and the children\u2019s book Mum\u2019s Busy Work.<\/p>\nMelanie Lynskey (left) and Robyn Malcolm as, respectively, Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse in a scene from the new movie Pike River, which also features Dame Jacinda Ardern as herself.<\/p>\n