Ruby and Rata

Ruby and Rata is the sort of film New Zealand should be doing more of

Ruby and Rata, New Zealand, 1990

Director: Gaylene Preston
Production Co: Preston-Laing Productions
Producers: Robin Laing, Gaylene Preston
Script: Graeme Tetley
Director of Photography: Leon Narbey
Musical Director: Jonathan Crayford
Costume Designer: Ngila Dickson

With: Yvonne Lawley (Ruby), Vanessa Rare (Rata), Lee Mete-Kingi (Willie), Simon Barnett (Buckle)

35mm, 109 minutes, PG-contains coarse language

Watch the Ruby and Rata trailer (3.8MB; 3.05 minutes)

A fiercely independent 83 year old Ruby is determined to live her own life in her own home. Despite her nephew Buckle’s efforts, she will not be interned in the Sunset Village retirement home. With Buckle’s reluctant help, she rents her basement flat to single mother Rata and her 8 year old son Willie. Ruby soon discovers Rata is not the person she thought she was. Both women are strong-willed and unprepared to concede they might need each other’s friendship. To gain the upper hand, Ruby kidnaps Willie. But it will be the boy who brings them together.

“I hate patronising, lower depths- type movies about how ghastly it is to be working class and poor [...] Ruby and Rata is not that kind of film. The heroine, Rata (Vanessa Rare) is allowed a full complement of character flaws, as is her determined antagonist Ruby (Yvonne Lawley). Poverty and age, respectively, are not allowed to obscure the essential humanity of this mismatched pair. Because they seem real, they are likeable and fun to spend time with. Go spend 90 minutes. You will not regret it.” — “Mismatch makes fine comedy”, Costa Botes, The Dominion, October 1, 1990

“Ruby and Rata is the sort of film New Zealand should be doing more of; films where the work is put into the characters and what they say, not ones where film-makers with ideas beyond their experience use a lot of Film Commission money to roast a turkey” — 'Likeable and beautiful slice of middle life', Russell Baillie, Sunday Star Times, September 30, 1990

"Preston and her team have woven a special kind of Kiwi magic in this one. I'd crawl across broken glass to see it again – and again." — Peter Calder, NZ Herald, 27 September 1990

Screenings: Ruby and Rata screened on 27 June 2004 as part of a selection chosen by film maker and actor Whetu Fala