Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs - Aardvark Films - 1977

Cast: Sam Neill, Ian Mune, Warren Oates, Nevan Rowe, Donna Akersten, Ian Watkin, Bill Johnson.
Screenplay: IIan Mune, Arthur Baysting (based on C. K. Stead's novel, 'Smith's Dream');
Photography: Michael Seresin;
Editor: Ian John;
Music: Murray Grindlay, David Calder, Mathew Brown;
Producer and Director: Roger Donaldson.
Against a background of economic crisis and industrial turmoil, goading a repressive government to rule by force, an apolitical man (Neill) leaves a broken marriage to set up home on an offshore island, unaware that revolutionaries are using it to store arms.
He finds out when the police come for him. Meanwhile his wife's lover (Mune), likewise apolitical until he is unwittingly caught up in police violence at a demonstration, becomes a revolutionary.
This is considered the film that marked the beginning of contemporary New Zealand cinema, and launched the careers of several film-makers and actors, most notably Sam Neill and Roger Donaldson.

"When we did Sleeping Dogs nobody knew what to do because we hadn't made a feature film before. We were just muddling around." -- Sam Neill