June 28, 2013
Land wars western gets digital revival
A new cut of the groundbreaking film Utu will premiere at next month’s Auckland and Wellington Film Festivals.
Director Geoff Murphy says when the film was first screened in 1983, many New Zealanders were resistant to the depictions of brutality during the land wars of the 1870s.
He says people today may be more willing to accept that such things happened.
The film stars Anzac Wallace, and the late Bruno Lawrence, Wi Kuki Kaa and Martin Sanderson.
Murphy says he digitalized and remastered Utu because he was shocked at the deterioration in the quality of the 35 millimetre film held in the archive.
It will be screened with a documentary about its making shot by Gaylene Preston.
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