Simon Haren

The 'stolen' insider emails that informed Nicky Hager's best-selling account of National's 2005 election campaign return in Alister Barry's (Someone Else's Country) new film - just in time to caution us against campaigning politicians in 2008. Addressing each other like schoolboy Machiavellis, party leader Don Brash and his advisors spelled out how they'd copy the big boys in Australia and the US in order to win the votes of people who'd never support the kind of policies such men are widely presumed to represent. The dividing and conquering began at Orewa.

When your mate has relationship problems, is it a good idea to bring your girlfriend along to help cheer him up? In Theo Taylor’s perceptive lo-fi feature we out with such a trio over a weekend spent at Lake Tarawera. Hadley, the mate, is in the throes of a breakup. Chris has joined him at his parents’ well-appointed lakeside house, bringing along girlfriend Lucy to provide moral support. But all Hadley wants to do is party, and he’s come very well provisioned. When Lucy gets delightedly trashed on night one, the drug-averse Chris begins to have second thoughts. Hadley’s determination to (a) stay high and (b) provide water skiing lessons on the freezing lake sends Chris’ ill-concealed need for control into further convolutions.