Screened as part of NZIFF 2011

Netherwood 2011

Directed by Cristobal Araus Lobos

Set in a fictional backwater and filmed in the beautiful limestone hills of Waipara, north of Christchurch, Netherwood stirs a hefty dose of hardboiled Southern Man stoicism into a modern day Western thriller.

90 minutes DigiBeta

Director, Editor

Producer

Owen Black

Co-producer

Will Hall

Screenplay

John Argall

Photography

Paul Tomlin

Music

Tom McLeod
,
Delaney Davidson

With

Owen Black (Stanley Harris)
,
Will Hall (Murray ‘Mex’ Moore)
,
Miriama Smith (Maria)
,
Mick Innes (Gordon Munroe)
,
Peter McCauley (Duncan Moore)
,
Peter Rowley (Carl)
,
Xavier Horan (Slade)
,
Zara Cormack (Rachel Moore)
,
Jon Thomson (Barry)
,
Jordan Mauger (Johnny)
,
Emma Bierwirth (Grace)

World Premiere

Hoyts Northlands, 16 August 2011

Owen Black, best known as the creepy Dr Ethan Pierce on Shortland Street, stars in a very different role as the lone drifter Stan, passing through the eponymous town of Netherwood. It’s not long before he is butting heads with macho bully Mex, played by fellow Street alumnus Will Hall, cranking the redneck craziness up several notches. After Stan takes on a job pruning trees for Monroe, an old cobber of his father, things get very complicated: he falls for the mysterious Maria (Miriama Smith) and finds himself the middle man in a long-standing land dispute between Monroe and Mex’s father, the local baron Duncan Moore. With hothead Mex on the prowl it’s not long before this feud escalates into a tense and violent showdown. — MM