Sleeping Dogs
Tribute Screening. 50% of proceeds will be donated to the NZ Nature Fund in Sir Sam Neill's honour.
In a near-future New Zealand spiralling into oil-crisis unrest and martial law, a newly separated everyman, Smith, flees to the Coromandel seeking solitude—only to find himself framed as a terrorist and reluctantly dragged into a deadly struggle between a fascist government and an underground resistance.
Director
Roger Donaldson (The World’s Fastest Indian)
CAST
Sam Neill • Ian Mune • Warren Oates • Nevan Rowe • Donna Akersten
RATING
VA
Violence
RUNTIME
1h 47m
COUNTRY
Aotearoa/NZ
GENRE
Action, Drama, Thriller
LANGUAGE
English
WATCH TRAILER
FILM NOTES
A lean, propulsive political thriller that helped ignite modern New Zealand cinema and launched Sam Neill onto the world stage.
Adapted from C.K. Stead’s novel Smith’s Dream, Sleeping Dogs was the first feature-length 35mm colour film produced entirely in New Zealand and a breakout debut for director Roger Donaldson. Sam Neill’s Smith is a man simply trying to escape a broken marriage who retreats to a bach on a Coromandel island, just as the country descends into a police state under emergency powers and anti-terror raids. His attempt to stay neutral collapses when he’s arrested, branded a subversive and forced onto the run through a landscape of roadblocks, American troops and guerrilla camps.
The film works both as a tense chase thriller—complete with sieges, explosions and a famous baton-charge sequence—and as a sharp, still-resonant portrait of how quickly democratic norms can erode under fear and economic pressure. Its success at home and abroad was a turning point: it became the first locally made feature to secure a US release, was a major box office hit, and directly influenced the establishment of the New Zealand Film Commission, cementing its place as a cornerstone of Aotearoa’s screen history.
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BOOK SEATS FOR
Sleeping Dogs
SLEEPING-0905-1700
Sat 5 Sep 5:00pm ncp
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All tickets must be prepaid online or at the counter.
Sales are subject to our cancellation policy. No phone bookings
ncp - no complimentary passes
cap - captioned for hard of hearing