Consent - The Louise Nicholas Story

This award-winning telemovie draws on the harrowing true story of Louise Nicholas, who battled to take a group of police officers to court for allegedly raping her when she was a teenager. This excerpt begins with an adult Nicholas (Michelle Blundell) entering Rotorua's police station in 1993 for an interview with Detective Inspector John Dewar (Mark Mitchinson). The drama shifts to Murupara where the young "Lou" (Thomasin McKenzie) enjoys a carefree childhood — until a local cop, who was a family friend, abused Nicholas's trust in the most terrible way. Consent marked director Rob Sarkies' first TV movie. 

One of the unique things for me was while Fiona [Samuel] was working on the shooting draft [of the script] this time last year and providing me with scenes from the film, I was making up a massive 1200 page legal documentation of every single fact and line in the film.

– Director Rob Sarkies on covering any legal pitfalls before filming Consent, The Dominion Post, 14 August 2014

Key Cast & Crew

Annie Collins

Editor

Michelle Blundell

As: Louise Nicholas

Mark Mitchinson

As: John Dewar

Thomasin McKenzie

As: Young Louise Nicholas

Kelson Henderson

As: Phil Kitchin

Rob Sarkies

Director, Original concept