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It has been three years since Mahurangi College student Rama Marrow was clambering under a house in Marlborough with his mouth taped shut during filming of the post-apocalyptic drama, Northspur.
For his mother Veda Austin, the memory is still quite clear.
Austin admits she found listening to her son, just 12 years old at the time, whimpering in the darkness as part of the scene, a little hard emotionally. But Rama wasn’t at all affected by it, she says. As soon as the scene was finished, he was himself again.
The film is set after an electromagnetic pulse strike brings down modern society in rural New Zealand.
The protagonist has to compete with gang members to find lifesaving medicine for his wife.
Rama plays a young boy, Robbie, who has escaped captivity from some gang members and is trying to survive in a cabin.
Initially planned for release in 2020, this was delayed by Covid until now.
The film will have its world premiere in Marlborough on September 1 and Rama and his parents will be there for the red-carpet event.
Fortunately for Rama, the plaster cast from breaking his wrist while skateboarding will be coming off a couple of days before the event.
The premiere will also likely be poignant for the cast and crew as one of the film’s main cast members, New Zealand born Marshall Napier, recently died of brain cancer.
While things have definitely slowed down for the young actor during the Covid outbreak, Rama hasn’t been out of the limelight completely. He appeared in short movie Matua, and Austin saw the humorous side of his image also being plastered over the back end of a bus for an Auckland Transport advertisement.
Northspur will be screened at 40 theatres in New Zealand, although local fans will have to travel to the Vic in Takapuna or Rialto in Newmarket.
North American rights have been picked up by Lionsgate.
More information about the film and where it is playing can be found on www.facebook.com/battlecabin
