Close Up - Utu

The game becomes: to make the sort of slick international-sort-of-looking product without losing the spirit that those old [Blerta] things have. When you look at those old things now, all that’s left is the energy and spirit that went into them. They look naïve and they’re technically terrible ... but the spirit’s there. That’s what we’ve got. That’s what New Zealand films have got.

– Geoff Murphy

I think that those guys basically were getting something together behind the backs of all of us. And really all they were doing were practising at being themselves, something that a lot of people just never manage to do. They had sufficient faith in themselves to take their kids, their wives, their girlfriends .. bong them all round New Zealand and just be who they are. They’re still very good at being who they are. They kinda love each other and they work together ... that’s so rare.

– Lawyer and satirist Dave Smith

They were sort of like disease on a bus, you know? People were saying things like, ‘don’t go near Blerta, you’ll catch something’.

– Lawyer and satirist Dave Smith