The Holy Roller

I mugged a Catholic priest once… I think he cried. I felt bad.

– Sid the Mugger (Patrick Duffy)

Angus [Benfield] doesn't give a hoot that I am a dirty heathen. His mission is to make a mainstream movie that will appeal to anyone, regardless of their philosophical beliefs. In mid-2008, a phone call: we're in the money. A mainly Christchurch-based business consortium has fronted up with $160,000 — a pot of gold to someone like me who has never made a film for over $45,000.

– Patrick Gillies on completing and screening The Holy Roller after the Christchurch earthquakes, The Sunday Star-Times, 8 September 2011

It’s a big and nasty place, you know?

– Reverend Bob (Martin Howells) reacts to Pastor Luke (Angus Benfield) saying he wants to move to the city

It was the afternoon of February 22, 2011. My last session of audio postproduction was scheduled for that evening. I was still in my pyjamas — having done two all-nighters — and was heading for the shower, when the earth jumped violently. Barefoot, I raced across broken glass to shelter my screaming wife and child. We were traumatised, but safe ... at least a dozen locations were either destroyed or badly damaged, changing the city skyline that features in the film.

– Director Patrick Gillies on having almost completed the film when the second big Christchurch quake hit, The Sunday Star-Times, 8 September 2011

Writer and lead actor, Angus Benfield, believes this is the first feature film shot in Christchurch to premiere since the earthquakes and may be the only one for a long time, due to the damage to the city’s infrastructure ... Benfield estimates that between 25% to 30% of the film’s locations have been destroyed or severely damaged in the earthquakes.

– Press release for The Holy Roller, 18 July 2011

The experience [of the Christchurch quakes] made me appreciate some of the sentiments in the film. I used to think 'hope' was merely a carrot, a means to anaesthetise us from our own inevitable mortality. Now I realise it's also a survival instinct, a powerful source of motivation when surrounded by helplessness. The Holy Roller is an unashamedly uplifting film and a celebration of the noblest of human values: a good ol' dose of feelgood.

– Director Patrick Gillies on what The Holy Roller means to him, after the Christchurch earthquakes, The Sunday Star-Times, 8 September 2011