Hunt for the Wilderpeople film advertising (digital copy)

This is a digital copy of the Australian DVD cover for Taika Waititi’s hugely successful film Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). Wilderpeople was based on Barry Crump’s novel Wild Pork and Watercress (1986).

In the film, Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a young delinquent who is placed into foster care with the loving Bella Faulkner (Rima Te Wiata) and her taciturn husband Hector (Hec) who live on a remote farm. When Bella dies, Ricky runs away and gets lost in the bush. He is found by Hec, and eventually after mishaps and finding they’re being pursued by the authorities, they agree to stick together and disappear into the wilds. The film tracks their transformations as individuals and how new family / whānau are formed along the way. With a light and empathetic touch, the film addresses serious themes: youth at risk (delinquency, the welfare system, poverty, mental health and suicide), man-alone tropes and ideas of masculinity, rural versus urban ways of being, race and cultural perspectives, second chances and redemption.

The image presents the key characters in their signature clothing, set deep in the middle of forest where the characters spend much of the film on the run from police, social welfare, and local rogues.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople became New Zealand's highest grossing film, and achieved many critical accolades around the world. Empire magazine named it the best film of 2016 (https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-films-2016/).