Country Lads was used to advocate for a reorganised government filmmaking body, to publicise the war effort during WWll. It went on to screen in Kiwi cinemas as the first production released by the newly born National Film Unit. It features footage of soldiers as they leave for the front. Adolf Hitler had called the Kiwi soldiers "poor deluded country lads"; but here the description is turned into a compliment. The narrator mentions Kiwi pioneers who "helped make this country what it is: happy, prosperous and free". During the war the NFU released a film every week, despite fears government filmmaking was about to be sidelined.