The Dark Horse
Highlights:
Broad Green Pictures will open THE DARK HORSE at the Angelika Film Center in New York City on Friday, April 1st. The film expands on April 8th.
Based upon a powerful true story, The Dark Horse is the uplifting portrait of a man searching for the courage to lead, despite his struggles with mental illness. The film features a stunning, award-winning performance by Cliff Curtis (Whale Rider, Blow, “Fear the Walking Dead”) as Genesis “Gen” Potini, a brilliant but troubled New Zealand chess champion who finds purpose by teaching underprivileged children about the rules of chess and life.
Director:
James Napier Robertson
Cast:
Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Wayne Hapi
Screenplay:
James Napier Robertson
Screening Date:
Mar 12, 2016
Studio:
Broad Green Pictures
Running Time:
124 minutes
| Excellent | Very Good | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42.2% | 24.4% | 28.9% | 2.2% | 2.2% |
“Dark film, very slow but with a good message. The actor (Cliff Curtis) who played Genesis was amazing!”
“Loved the choice of music!”
“What performances! What a story! Our children are blank canvasses, but it takes a man with bipolar disorder to see it.”
“Great! Fabulously done. Great casting. Beautiful to watch. Thank you. Interesting true story!”
“This film was magnificent. A great and truly important human-focused story. The sense of place, physical as well as social is critical and exquisitely deployed.”
“A remarkable film.”
“This is why I come to MEA, a film from New Zealand that would easily have escaped me otherwise. Tough sometimes to understand the dialogue, but even the rhythm of the speech was virtually melodic, often poetic.”
“An excellent film. We need more films about these type of children!”
“More titles were needed to get more of the dialogue.”
“Not the tourist New Zealand but very interesting.”
“During the scene of the winning chess match the camera leaves the ‘action’ inside and focuses only on Genesis outside. This is something ‘Hollywood’ would never do, but it’s exactly the right choice at the moment.”
“Lost in some parts because of lack of subtitles.”
“This is easily one of the best films to come to MEA, so many thanks for that. I loved the way the Western game of chess is claimed and re-imaged from a Maui cultural perspective.”
“A tremendous, amazing powerful hopeful film. All of the actors - untrained or otherwise - were beautiful to watch. Every young person in the world needs to watch THE DARK HORSE.”
“Needed subtitles at the beginning. Raw and difficult to watch at times.”
“Parts of THE DARK HORSE felt so real that it seemed like a documentary, especially the chess tournament. The lead actor was very convincing.”
“Fantastic movie! Excellent all around. Smart, intelligent and moving!”
“Very interesting. Some of the accents were hard to understand and I wish they had subtitles for the entire film. Started slowly but I suddenly got involved. Not a corny predictable movie like RACE. Thoughtful, complex, not hopeful or optimistic but not defeatist either.”
“It's been a while since I've seen a more homosocial film. It's all about guys and violence; women are irrelevant. The only woman, the wife of the chess club guy, is the exception that proves the rule. There was also a girl in the club. But what was interesting was the total absence of any scenes of sexual desire, homo or hetero. Violence and power replaced it. So the one gang member's claim to "owning" the boy on his 15th birthday was a sign of power. Perhaps the most compelling character (or performance) was that of the boy's father -- very quiet, very still, and a lot more than just dying going on inside him.”
“Chess films are always about balance of power and restraint. Very powerful and unexpected.”
“Extraordinary portrayal.”
“Hard to understand.”
“THE DARK HORSE weaves three stories - a de-institutionalized man battles his mental illness, minority youth channel energy through learning chess, and a family battles over a son/nephew’s future in or out of a gang. The result is a rich, complicated story free of clichés, and deeply emotional. We can overlook that the kid’s learning chess in six weeks. American audiences will require subtitles.”
“The film's virtual ignoring of women stands in bold contrast with the brilliant New Zealand Maori film of a couple of decades ago, Once Were Warriors, which was about a powerful woman's finding her identity by fighting and rising above the dying Maori male and violence centered culture. On the basis of that, the director, Lee Tamahori, went to Hollywood and did the brilliant but overlooked Mulholland Falls with Nick Nolte. He also did a very good James Bond film.”
“Chess as a metaphor for battle, chess as a metaphor for class, and then giving each piece to the children makes them a metaphor for family. Don’t know if this really happened or brilliant screenwriting, but either way what a great movie!’
If you'd like to know more about the film...
The film goes about telling not only the story of Genisis Potini but also the story of The Eastern Knights. With this being said it seems the film has gone beyond chronicling a story and has in fact added to it. Below is an article which highlights how the film has helped reinvigorate The Easter Knights.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11306have it306
The film displays a group of underprivileged kids who are bought together into a chess group as a means of stability and positivity in an unstable life. As chance would have it however this is not the only case of this. The link below is a trailer to another film with children in a similar situation, though in this case New York.
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1800266/
Aside from the characters in the film you may also find yourself interested in the director of this film as well as why this film was made. The link below leads to an interview with the director in which he discusses his career. The ending in particular focuses on The Dark Horse.
