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Story: Feature film

Goodbye pork pie, 1981

Video file

Geoff Murphy's outrageously entertaining road movie showed New Zealanders that their films could be as much fun as anyone else’s. Goodbye pork pie was the first New Zealand feature to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival and sold widely overseas. Made for less than $500,000, it relied on the talent, resources and goodwill of local people and institutions such as New Zealand Railways. The Southland Times slated the film's 'flagrant breaking of speed restrictions and examples of dangerous driving', but most others loved it for the same reason. Watch this extract and see if you agree.

Using this item

New Zealand Film Commission

Reference: Goodbye Pork Pie. Producer, Nigel Hutchinson; director, producer and writer, Geoff Murphy. Pork Pie Productions and AMA Productions, 1981.

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How to cite this page

Helen Martin, Feature film – The 1980s: breaking new ground, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/42479/goodbye-pork-pie-1981 (accessed 14 June 2026).

Story by Helen Martin, published 9 September 2013, reviewed and revised 21 May 2024 with assistance from Emma-Jean Kelly.