Muru Asian Premiere In Competition At Busan International Film Festival

Tearepa Kahi’s Muru will have its Asian premiere in the Flash Forward competition section of the 27th Busan International Film Festival.

Selected to screen in the opening weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival, Muru, written and directed by Tearepa Kahi and produced by Reikura Kahi, Selina Joe and Tame Iti, will next screen in competition at the Busan International Film Festival which will take place October 5 – 14th. The festival is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia, and an important platform for introducing new directors.

Flash Forward is a competition for non-Asian filmmakers' first or second narrative features, that take an innovative and original approach to cinema storytelling. The winner is selected by the audience and awarded the Flash Forward Audience Award.

Muru, starring Cliff Curtis, Jay Ryan, Manu Bennett, Tame Iti, Simone Kessell, Roimata Fox, Ria Te Uira Paki and Poroaki Merritt-McDonald is in its first week of theatrical release in New Zealand. Inspired by actual events, Muru is the story of a local Police Sergeant ‘Taffy’ Tāwharau (Curtis), who must choose between duty to his badge or his people, when the Government invoke antiterrorism powers to launch an armed raid on Taffy’s remote Urewera community, on a school day. This gripping action drama is not a re-creation, but a response to the 2007 Tūhoe raids. Muru is a Maori concept for 'forgiveness’.

Muru was made with funding from the New Zealand Film Commission, the New Zealand Government's Screen Production Grant, Arclight Films International, Te Māngai Pāho, NZ On Air/Irirangi Te Motu, Three, Imagezone, Images & Sound and completed with the assistance of the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Recovery Fund.

Arclight Films are handling ROW Sales with Rialto Distribution releasing the film in New Zealand and Australia.

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