They wrote it, with ... well, it's a complicated screen writing credit, actually, as Middleditch and Mark Turnbull are credited with the original concept, but on the other hand, it's based on a screenplay by Keith Aberdein, with additional writers, so quite a merry scrambled pudding. But good, though.
Anyway, it's a story about rugby and racism in the 1980s. New Zealand is in uproar over the visiting South African rugby team from anti-apartheid demonstrators. But in a local community, young Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilder People) realises how unfairly the local Maori community has been treated and sees racism all around him in public school, where his brother Jamie Waaka is the now injured rugby star.
It has a quirky quality to his handling of serious issues, so isn't heavy-handed. JD is fabulous when filming audition scene, ending in Maori chant.
With Rhys Darby as a supportive teacher, Minnie Driver in unwise blonde hair, Jada Fa'atui (JD's Maori friend - that name was hard to track down*), Erana James (activist), Mark Mitchinson (Principal), Julian's mum Mabelle Dennison (hospitalised Maori leader).
*She has been rather unfairly neglected. She does not appear in the pictured cast on Google, at all, and appears 20th on the cast list on IMDB (where she's actually 12th in the credits).
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