Film Festival 09 - Land of The Long White Cloud
Land of the Long White Cloud
New Zealand 2009, 75m
Director: Florian Habicht
Florian Habicht describes his latest exposé of the
recreational habits of Northlanders as a 'sequel of sorts' to his
classic Kaikohe Demolition. Claimed to be the largest surfcasting
event in the world, the annual Ninety Mile Beach Red Snapper
Classic attracts hundreds of anglers for five days every February
to compete for prizes in excess of $250,000, with the biggest
snapper taking out a serious $50,000. Habicht joins them, camera in
hand, full of questions about what they might be thinking as they
engage in this elemental and apparently very relaxing pursuit. How
will they spend the prize money? Do they believe in an afterlife?
Habicht relishes the individual flavour of every frank response.
There are interludes of boisterous carousing, grueling scenes of
snapper Passion, and long and lovely shots of the long and lovely
beach. The amiable atmosphere of tolerance and unpretentious
philosophising is so salty and true and rousing that you could
bottle it, call it Kiwiade, and sell it by the crateload to
homesick expatriates.
