by Amberleigh Jack — 15 August 2023
The first trailer for Uproar, a New Zealand feature film starring Rhys Darby, Julian Dennison, and Minnie Driver, has been released. The film follows Josh Waaka, a 17-year-old Dunedin teenager who is struggling to fit in at school and becomes embroiled in protests surrounding the arrival of the South African Springbok rugby team in 1981. The New Zealand Film Commission describes the film as a coming-of-age story set in Aotearoa during the anti-apartheid and anti-racism protests. Waaka’s struggle to find his place as a “Mori surrounded by white kids” is depicted in the trailer, as is his involvement in protests, which gets him in trouble at school. Following its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, Uproar will be released in New Zealand theatres on October 5.