Far North - Excerpt

Can you at least have a look at it? We wanna get finished up ASAP like...money's no issue.

– Mack (John Paul Foliaki) begs Ed (Temuera Morrison) for help with their damaged boat

I...I have to be here. 'Till it's done. Promise.

– Louie (Villa Junior Lemanu) makes another promise to his pregnant partner that he'll soon be home

I spent a long time walking up and down the beach with the real life Heather and her dogs, talking about the world. It was a dream in that respect. Heather and Ed are so beautiful and down to earth and lovely and caring. Tem and Robyn have done a great job portraying them.

– Far North writer/director David White on researching the people and events that inspired Far North, The Spinoff, 14 August 2023

I'm down at Shipwreck Bay helping these guys launch their boat.They're bloody idiots.

– Ed (Temuera Morrison) describes Stevie (Maaka Pohatu) and his suspect 'friends'

Tem might be Boba Fett, but he was on that tractor, he did all his own stunts ...both of them launched the boats in episode one. They got stuck in and had a real ball.

– Writer/director David White on Temuera Morrison's playing Ahipara local Ed, The Spinoff, 14 August 2023

They genuinely liked these guys and developed a relationship with them. The little suspicions that they had started to creep up on them. There’s that lovely thing that we have as Kiwis where you automatically think the best of somebody. I can relate to this. When you meet someone who’s behaving slightly oddly, I don’t go ‘criminal’. You try to think logically; ‘What’s up with them?’. By the time they got to a point where they’ve got a very angry man speaking in Mandarin on a satellite phone on the beach, that’s when they started to go, ‘What is this?’. But it was a slow burn for them.

– Robyn Malcolm on the real life Ahipara couple Heather and Ed, The NZ Herald, 14 August 2023

As well as offering a terrific opportunity for two of our most beloved actors — and early Shortland Street stars —  (in Morrison and Malcolm) to share prime-time screen time together, Far North also provides a fabulous showcase for younger and less well-known talents like Villa Junior Lemanu (The Panthers), Maaka Pohatu (Wellington Paranormal), John Paul Foliaki (Red, White and Brass), Xana Tang (Fresh Eggs), Nikita Tu-Bryant (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Louise Jiang (Homebound 3.0). It might not quite be Aotearoa’s answer to Ozark, but it certainly has enough going for it to keep you hooked.

– Reviewer James Croot on the cast of Far North, Stuff, 14 August 2023

Director and head writer David White (Meat, This Town, Shihad: Beautiful Machine) does a terrific job of weaving together the story’s three strands, expertly switching between the all-female Chinese boat crew, the would-be drug dealers and the increasingly bemused residents of Ahipara and Kaitaia. . . . A story that makes great use of its small town and rural New Zealand location, Far North is a Kiwi crime caper that successfully marries a style and swagger Guy Ritchie would be proud of to solid storytelling...

– Stuff reviewer James Croot on Far North, Stuff, 14 August 2023