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Hero image for Broken Barrier

Broken Barrier

Film (Trailer) – 1952

G
Anyone

Broken Barrier marked the first New Zealand dramatic feature to be made since 1940. Its production saw directors John O'Shea and Roger Mirams crowding into a Vauxhall with two silent cameras, one picked up "from a dead German in the Western Desert". Ditching dialogue for 'spoken thoughts', the pioneering film examines cultural complications in a romance between a Pākehā journalist (Terence Bayler) and a Māori nurse (Kay Ngarimu, aka Keita Whakato Walker). According to O'Shea, some viewers considered it "a dirty movie" for spurring mixed race relationships.

Broken Barrier is a down to earth picture of the New Zealand we all know about ... and seldom talk about. But people will talk about Broken Barrier from north Auckland to the Bluff.
– Voiceover on trailer

Key Cast & Crew

See all 21 credits

Produced by

Pacific Films

Acknowledgements

Presented with thanks to the New Zealand Film Heritage Trust – Te Puna Ataata

Music

Music composed by Australian-based composer Sydney John Kay (aka Kurt Kaiser)

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