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Tangiwai - A Love Story
Television (Trailer and Excerpts) – 2011
Christmas Eve 1953: Cricketer Bob Blair (Ryan O'Kane) is in South Africa, days away from batting for New Zealand. His fiancée Nerissa Love (Maddigan's Quest's Rose McIver) is boarding an ill-fated train, which in this excerpt will plunge into the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, in the country's worst rail disaster. The Dominion Post's Linda Burgess found this TV movie retelling of the tragic romance "first-rate", noting "consistently excellent" performances from O'Kane, McIver, and Miranda Harcourt as Nerissa's wary mother. Tangiwai won four NZ TV awards, including best cinematography.
Young love may be hard to portray without going down the sentimental path, but this drama shone with its depiction of social mores in New Zealand in the repressed and repressive 1950s, most particularly with the portrayal of Catholic girl marrying Protestant boy.– Writer Linda Burgess in The Dominion Post, 16 August 2008
Key Cast & Crew
See all 42 credits
Acknowledgements
Made with funding from NZ On Air
Music
Song 'Stealing Happiness' sung by Gin Wigmore.
Soundtrack available for download via Peter Hobbs' bandcamp page
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