Obituaries for Jacindamania were a little premature it seems, given the new documentary about the former leader, Prime Minister, became the fastest-selling movie in the history of Te Whānau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival last month.
This is not the documentary that controversially attracted $800,000 from the NZ Film Commission to look at the "social and political issues" associated with Ardern’s tenure. That film, with the working title of Mania, is now not going ahead.
Prime Minister is, rather, the authorised version, Ardern’s husband Clarke Gayford is one of the producers. It addresses at least some of the politics Mania might have, making for an unsettling watch.
It begins with Ardern in her US exile, schooling young people in the divisions of our age.
Then, the film gives us a lesson in how those divisions manifested across her term and what it’s like to be the person cast in a central role.
There’s lots of familiar territory in the documentary, Ardern’s work fronting for us all after the Christchurch massacre, her "go hard and early" leadership through Covid, but also plenty of behind the scenes footage, including some shot by Ardern’s partner — apparently with a view to posterity. It’s a reminder, Ardern did all that and had a baby.
Prime Minister provides both an insight into the sort of steel required to survive in the politics of the 21st century — especially if you are not a cis Pākehā bloke — and a reality check that even steel has its limits. Ardern ages before our eyes across the film’s running time.
It’s a useful and timely mirror to hold up to the nation in which the events transpired.
While Prime Minister does not explicitly pose it, we’re left with the question of whether Ardern might ever be safe to return to Aotearoa to live, or whether the fevered politics that sprung up around her, fuelled by social media disinformation and misogyny, makes that too risky a prospect for a mother with a young child to think about.
Movie review by Tom McKinlay
