The God Boy

The God Boy is a portrait of a troubled teen Jimmy (Jamie Higgins) growing up in post-war small town New Zealand and wrestling with a repressive education and home front turmoil. Adapted from the Ian Cross novel by Ian Mune and directed by Murray Reece, the landmark film was the first NZ telefeature, gaining Feltex awards and front page reviews. With menace and Catholic guilt ever-present, it’s credited as a pioneer of what Sam Neill dubbed NZ’s “cinema of unease”. Higgins later starred in Australian TV show The Sullivans.

The story was shot with moments of creative imagination. It is all recalled in the memory of Jimmy, a 13-year-old boy, and everything that happens is not only seen through the wide eyes of a boy, but a special boy, a Catholic taught by nuns, for whom the happenings of life become coloured and bent in a way that water plays on light ... The boy-actor Jamie Higgins, was an ever-unfolding bliss.

– Dick Campion, ‘Good God Boy’, Listener review, 1 May 1976

Key Cast & Crew

Murray Reece

Director, Producer

Ian Mune

Writer

Judie Douglass

As: Sister Angela

Mark Scott-Smith

As: Joe Waters

Ivan Beavis

As: Bloody Jack

Harold Kissin

As: Mr Walters