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Overview
This costume was worn by Sam Neill for his role as Hector (Hec) Faulkner in Taika Waititi’s hugely successful film Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). Hunt for the 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 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.
Hec Faulkner is a man-alone character – competent and independent in his rural environment – both on the farm and in the bush. His character is expressed and revealed through his rural clothing. Costume designer Kristin Seth recalls that Hec's iconic Swanndri ‘is synonymous with the classic Kiwi bloke’. His beanie and gloves were hand-knitted. His tramping boots were custom made in New Zealand to survive in mud and snow for six weeks of filming. His hat was by Akubra, an Australian heritage brand. The actor needed multiple copies of each item to get through the demands of the shoot and to evoke the hardships the character goes through when on the run from the authorities in the depths of winter.
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/).