Boy

Two Cars, One Night

R: Taika Waititi

New Zealand 2004, 11 min. OF

Romeo and Polly sit in separate cars outside a pub, waiting for their parents. They're bored until they notice each other – at first they bicker and play it cool, but by the time they have to say goodbye the sparks of first love are flickering.

Boy

D: Taika Waititi

New Zealand 2010, 90 min, OF

In his second feature, Taika Waititi returns to his childhood in a Maori community on New Zealand’s East Coast. Boy lives with his grandmother and looks after his siblings. Like Waititi in real life, he’s also a big Michael Jackson fan. His father is in prison, but in Boy’s fantasies he’s effortlessly cool, cunning, and a very busy man. When his Dad turns up in person, Boy tries hard to impress his hero. He wants everything to be as he’d imagined it, but it’s Dad (played by Waititi) who has the growing up to do. Armed with his trademark deadpan humour, Waititi takes this contemporary coming-of-age comedy to deeper places, turning his own experiences into a charmingly quirky cinematic adventure.