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Entertainment

Guess What World, New Zealand Has More Than One Funny Filmmaker

Madeleine Sami and Jackie Van Beek are the new Taika Waititi.
Directors Jackie Van Beek (left) and Madeleine Sami. Image supplied. 

What do you do when you’re putting a film out that you’ve written, starred in and directed in–and the headlines are all about someone else? If you're Jackie Van Beek and Madeleine Sami, you’re genuinely laidback about it. The creative duo are about to release their heartwarmingly absurd buddy comedy The Breaker Upperers, and everywhere you look their mate Taika Waititi’s name is popping up first. See? I’m as guilty of doing it as anyone else.

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To be fair, Waititi did executive–produce the film and helped with the writing. And Sami and Van Beek are canny enough to know that his name is good for publicity. While he was busy reworking Marvel monster Thor 3 in brazenly Kiwi style, Sami and Van Beek were shooting The Breaker Upperers themselves. What’s come out the other side is a funny film that proves—if there was ever any doubt—that New Zealand can produce films well outside the cinema of unease. And the rest of the world is catching on. When the film debuted at SXSW American trade mag Variety recognised it as part of a specific local genre: “the increasingly familiar patter of Kiwi comedy: dogged naivety, nervous politeness, hazy thoughts that trail off like vapor.”

In The Breaker Upperers, Sami and Van Beek play 30-something friends and business partners trading in heartbreak. For a few hundred bucks they will dress up as cops, or kidnappers or the pregnant other woman and deliver your lover an outrageous lie in order for you to get out of a relationship without having a teary, decent, honest conversation. It’s a conceit that’s perfect for a nation that cringes at confrontation. On the other hand, you do have to suspend your disbelief in a country with a population so small that the truth is bound to come out eventually, or as soon as you run into your supposedly dead ex on the street.

The local film scene is even smaller. Van Beek went to school with Waititi and both Sami and Van Beek have acted in his films over the years. So, they say, it’s natural they have a shared sensibility when it comes to comedy. “I feel like we are a kind of family here in New Zealand. A lot of the comments over in Austin were that ‘there’s such a distinct New Zealand comedy voice now, and you know, that’s thanks to Taika and Jemaine [Clement] and Brett [McKenzie] and Rhys [Darby].”

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Jackie Van Beek (right) and Madeleine Sami with James Rolleston in a scene from The Breaker Upperers.

Clement makes a cameo in The Breaker Upperers as a awkwardly bangable Tinder date, just one of many local comedians and actors who make appearances in the film. At the same time that Van Beek and Sami are following in the footsteps of the Flight of the Conchords alumni, they’re making way for the new breed of comedy talent who have yet to use cinema as a platform—Rose Matafeo, Chris Parker and FAFSWAG’s Moe Laga are just a few recognisable faces that make an appearance, and there’s a breakthrough turn from rising star Ana Scotney. When filming, the directors relied heavily on improvisation, drawing on their backgrounds in the theatre.

Sami and Van Beek have been friends since their teens, but really bonded during a particularly intense run of Badjelly the Witch. Sami, playing the witch, had just lost her father and Van Beek in the role of the worm—“a pivotal part” she says—was getting over a breakup. “We drank a lot, we hung out with each other a lot. We helped each other get through these weird epic life things that were happening to us,” says Sami.

Being great friends doesn’t necessarily mean a constructive working relationship, but these two have gone through the creative process and hit the publicity trail with their friendship intact. Maybe it’s written in the stars. Both are Taureans, born May 10.

“We’re a similar personality type in that we’re quite strong, we’re stubborn,” say Van Beek
“Outgoing, we have opinions,” adds Sami.

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“We’re also very accommodating with people and we don’t like people to be upset and I think that goes for most New Zealanders, New Zealanders don’t like people to be upset.”

While the break-ups-for-hire provide the LOLs in the film, The Breaker Upperer’s most heart-tugging moments are grounded in the central friendship between Sami and Van Beek’s characters. An expired romance is one thing, but a friendship breakup can be just as brutal.

“The friend ones are hard,” says Sami. ”The friendship just dissolves. One of you wants to stay friends and is really sad about it and the other person has just moved on and you’re not expected to hurt as much about a friendship breakup because you’re just friends.”

“Friends mean so much in life though don’t they?” says Van Beek. “The great thing about this industry is it’s so great to work with friends because they’re the people you spend all your time with.”

The Breaker Upperers is released in New Zealand cinemas on May 3.