Kombi Nation

Surely the only film in history to start in Levin and end in Italy!

Kombi Nation, New Zealand, 2003

Kombi Nation Productions
Director: Grant LaHood
Producer: Ainsley Gardiner
Script: Grant LaHood, Loren Horsley, Gentiane Lupi, Genevieve Mclean, Jason Whyte
Cinematography: Simon Riera
Editing: Annie Collins, Grant LaHood

With: Loren Horsley (Liz), Gentiane Lupi (Sal), Genevieve McLean (Maggie), Jason Whyte (Scott)

35mm, M–Offensive language, sexual references & drug use, 88 minutes

The trip of a lifetime. What could possibly go wrong?

“Sometimes relatively unknown films take you totally by surprise. Kombi Nation is one such film. I hadn't heard of this film before I selected it for review, but now I can tell you - this film from New Zealand is a little gem. Writer and director Grant Lahood has created a highly entertaining film based on the ambition of many young people to backpack their way through Europe, although this trip isn't quite the dream our travellers had hoped for. Grant's previous film experience is mainly in short films – three of these are well presented as extras on this DVD. He has also made television commercials, and a first feature, Chicken, in 1995. Grant actually shares the writing credit with his four principal actors. Although he wrote the screenplay, considerable adlibbing was done by the actors, adding their contributions to the screenplay. Sal arrives at Heathrow Airport to meet her sister, Maggie and friend Liz. All three girls are New Zealanders and have planned a European trip touring in a Kombi Van at their leisure. Sal has a surprise for the girls – she has brought a documentary film crew with her. To get the funds she needed to actually get to London, Sal agreed to have the trip filmed as part of a reality type TV program. Reluctantly, the other girls accept the deal and go looking for a Kombi to buy for their adventure. When they discover a shortfall in funds for the purchase, they are introduced to a fellow Kiwi, Scott. After carefully considering the camera crew, he chips in the extra cash needed, the Kombi is purchased, and the adventure (or misadventure) begins. The road trip starts smoothly, but it isn't long before tensions mount. Scott is on a personal quest to sleep with each of the girls, and is also selling drugs at campsites to keep his finances afloat. A hidden camera is planted in the Kombi by the crew to get voyeuristic footage. Personal items are tampered with, and money goes missing. The film crew are aware of the guilty parties, but deliberately keep this information from the travellers to heighten the tension. All this, and the constant presence of cameras filming and recording their every move, bring events to a boiling point. Kombi Nation was filmed from two different perspectives. We see film footage through the eyes of the reality TV crew, and handy cam footage from the travellers. Both are well edited to give a clear indication of whose point of view we are seeing. The film was actually shot using Super 16 and Digital Video, then blown up to 35mm for cinema release. Filming took place through many European countries using a small crew of five, and was shot guerrilla style. The crew set up quickly, filmed the scene, then moved on. The plot is always at the forefront, and locations are used only to enhance the scene, thus avoiding it becoming a simple travelogue film. The actors had extensive rehearsals before filming, a policy that paid huge dividends, as the performances from all four actors are totally convincing. Strangely, the film that sprung to mind most while watching Kombi Nation was The Blair Witch Project. Both are very different in subject matter, but both have the absolute necessity of portraying "real" people for the films to succeed.” — Steve Crawford, http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ID=5688

“Kombi Nation is an entertaining riff on that Kiwi rite of passage – the Big OE. The film opens on the tomboyish Sal, a Levin 22-year-old heading for London to join her uptight big sister Maggie and Maggie’s bimbo-ish mate Liz. It comes, to put it mildly, as a surprise to Liz and Maggie that Sal has a film crew in tow, which plans to follow the pals on their classic Kombi tour of Europe. The crew has paid for Sal’s flight, in return they want a slice of reality TV. The dramatic and comic potential of this clever set-up is rich enough by Lahood ups the ante by introducing a snake in the grass: Scott, who has money and is from Napier, charms his way into the touring party on the grounds that he knows something about VW motors. He is both less and more than he seems. Cue mayhem. What makes the small and clever Kombi Nation work so well is that it is a film with the courage of its restrictions. Grant Lahood keeps the focus tight and never gets ideas above the film’s station. He has a sure sense of the chaos of that form of travel, which is sort of lie mixed flatting in a space the size of a ping-pong table, and captures perfectly the cringe-inducing style of the Kiwi abroad who will ask a Spanish icecream vendor for hokey pokey. The film-outside-a-film device doesn’t always work – the reality TV crew is peripheral and often inexplicably absent, but its presence is a perpetual source of dramatic energy – not least because Big Brother and other small-screen garbage has rather devalued the currency. But the performances are charming and Whyte’s self-serving sleazebag is one of local cinema’s most memorable creations. It should also be a hit...” — Peter Calder, Weekend Herald, 11/10/03

“Director Grant Lahood was roasted when his debut comedy Chicken bombed at the box office in 1996. Next it was the ignominy of Kombi Nation’s release being delayed more than a year because of the collapse of a Wellington film company. But the unforeseen wait is worth it. The comedy about four twentysomething Kiwis belting through Europe in the iconic Volkswagen camper van is tuned perfectly for laughs and even insight. Despite the enjoyably dark twist in the last third, it’s probably the best advertisement for the OE rite-of-passage ever made. The four are followed by a fictional documentary crew, now standard in TV shows like The Office. But this was shot in 1999, showing Lahood was ahead of the game. The technique – shaky 35mm, holiday videocam and hidden security camera – and the crew themselves are essential for the action, not a clever distraction. Kiwi bands blast on the soundtrack and frenetic pace pulls you in for the ride. Sal, her sister Maggie and Liz team up with slacker Scott in London and reluctantly allow themselves to be filmed to save cash. They drink, swear and shag their way around France, Spain, Portugal and Italy – most of their time at campsites with other Kombi tourists rather than the locals. All four shine, but it’s Whyte and Lupi – introduced with a hilarious dig at Levin – who dominate with the funniest lines and quirks. Only a fool isn’t considering them for more features. Kombi Nation sends up reality TV and road movies, but at its heart, it’s an upbeat and hilarious celebration of a Kiwi tradition.” — Tom Cardy, The Dominion Post, 28/8/03

“Surely the only film in history to start in Levin and end in Italy, Kombi Nation is not without its charm: much of it is in the relaxed and often hilarious performance of Jason Whyte, an under-seen Wellington actor. As the fox in the henhouse, Whyte’s dubious character Scott tours Europe in a Kombi with three young Kiwi women while cameras, both visible and hidden, roll.” — Philip Matthews, NZ Listener, 30/8/03

Screenings: Kombi Nation screened on 5 December 2007 as part of the season Hitting in the Road