28 Jul 2018 | BY Shelley Lee - @ShelleyLee_
After premiering at SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas earlier this year The Breaker Upperers, a movie about outsourcing the act of dumping someone, has accumulated an eclectic international collection of fans including the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Madeleine Sami (Sione’s Wedding, Super City) and Jackie van Beek (What We Do In the Shadows, The Inland Road) wrote, directed and star in the film, shot over just twenty-two days. It boasts Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi as executive producer, and a support cast including the Waititi favourite – the talented James Rolleston, and stellar Australian actress Celia Pacquola.
Race, sexuality, family, loyalty, morality all get the comedic once over, but friendship and love are the dominant themes of the flick.
There’s also a music video flash-back tribute to Celine Dion that has a sprinkling of Kath and Kim to its hilarity (and hair styling). Dion mega-fans, Sami and van Beek launching a social media campaign to try and get the My Heart Will Go On singer to see their film while she is touring Australia over July and August.
It blasted the New Zealand box-office when it hit screens there in May, and ahead of The Breaker Upperers landing in Australian cinemas, it was announced Netflix had snapped up the rights to premiere the female-driven comedy on their streaming service next year.
With a majority female crew, The Breaker Upperers has claimed a top score of F8 on our FIERCE Factor , and landed in Australian cinemas July 26.