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Ruby and Rata
Film (Trailer and Excerpts) – 1990
This Gaylene Preston comedy was a Kiwi hit, uplifting recession-era audiences with its tale of resourceful misfits living by their wits. Ruby (Yvonne Lawley), an 83-year-old trying to dodge a retirement home, rents her downstairs flat to Rata (Vanessa Rare, in her screen debut) — a solo mum with sidelines in music and benefit fraud. Rata's son is into shoplifting and fires, and What Now?'s Simon Barnett plays a hapless yuppie wannabe. In this excerpt, Ruby meets Rata — plus unexpected guests. Marginalised by market forces, the trio may find common cause despite themselves. Graeme Tetley (Vigil) wrote the script.
Ruby and Rata is a 110-minute riposte to anyone who claims that New Zealand cinema is dour and grim.– Author Hamish McDouall, in his 2009 book 100 Essential New Zealand Films
Key Cast & Crew
See all 47 credits
Produced by
Preston*Laing Productions
Acknowledgements
Made in association with the NZ Film Commission
Presented with thanks to the Aotearoa/New Zealand Film Heritage Trust – Te Puna Ataata
Music
Rata's songs sung by Vanessa Rare, and performed by Simon White, Dave Clark and Tony Gallagher
'Sick & Tired' adapted from a song by Bob Brannigan, and performed by Vanessa Rare and Russell Gowers
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