The Whole of the Moon

TWOTM is a film of strength, character and honesty that every adolescent in New Zealand should be breaking down the cinema doors to see.

The Whole of the Moon, New Zealand / Canada, 1996

Tucker Films Ltd / Cinar Productions Inc
Director: Ian Mune
Producers: Murray Newey (NZ), Micheline Charest (CANADA)
Co-producers: Judith Trye, Patricia Lavoie
Associate producer: Brian Walden
Executive producers: Ronald A. Wienberg, Antony I. Ginnane
Screenplay: Richard Lymposs, Ian Mune
Based on a story by: Richard Lymposs
Director of photography: Warrick Attewell
Camera operator: Mark Olsen
Editor: Jean Beaudoin

With: Toby Fisher (Kirk Mead), Nikki Si’ Ulepa (Marty), Pascale Bussieres (Sarah), Paul Gittins (Alec Mead), Jane Thomas (Maureen Mead)

35mm, 94 minutes, PG

Watch the Trailer

Film & TV Awards 1996: Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Contribution to Design
Giffoni Film Festival, Italy 1996: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress

Privileged Kirk is struck down with cancer. In the hospital he meets his polar opposite Marty. Despite their differences the two become friends. One night the two sneak away from the hospital for one final fling of freedom. As they race with the moon, Kirk discovers an important truth. Through Marty’s indominatable will and unbreakable spirit, Kirk resolves to challenge the odds and fight with all his heart and soul to become just like Marty and live his life reaching out for the whole of the moon.

“Disease – particularly the terminal variety – makes for dire cinema, encouraging scriptwriters and film makers to pluck the heartstrings in the most manipulative manner and serve up cheap sentiment in place of authentic emotion. But directing this unusual teenage love story, which took most of the honours at last year’s film awards, Ian Mune avoids most of the pitfalls of the genre with the elegance one would expect from the doyen of local film making. The story is by Richard Lymposs, though the joint screenwriting credit for Mune suggests it is fair to detect more than a trace of his guiding hand in the finished script. In any event it is a bracingly unsentimental approach to a tale which could so easily have been grotesquely mawkish. The two characters who comprise the story’s odd couple eye each other across a yawning social and ethnic divide. Kirk is the golden boy of an affluent eastern suburbs professional couple; Marty is the jetsam of a broken home, a former street kid and drug abuser whose history has covered her big heart with a hard shell. They meet in a cancer ward when a pain in Toby’s leg turns out to be life-threatening and the film charts the rocky path of a relationship in which each has much to teach the other. Mune pitches us straight in, with one of the more kinetic title sequences in recent memory, and the film, gloriously shot by Warwick Attewell, is replete with magic moments even though the action is mostly confined to a hospital ward. Rooftop scenes which animate the very effective image of the title and a long shot in which Toby gazes mournfully at the skating mates he cannot join are only the most memorable of many. It’s not without its jarring moments of which Toby’s “I don’t want to lose my leg” is the most banal, and Fisher’s performance is at times outclassed by Si’ulepa’s combination of ruggedness and poise. But, like Bonjour Timothy, the other film made in the co-production arrangement with the Canadians, the movie adopts an impressively unpatronising teenage view of the world and is pretty impressive as a result.” — Peter Calder, NZ Herald, 6/2/97

“Inspired by a series of unconnected real-life events, TWOTM is the story of Kirk, a teenager from a privileged family who has everything he wants in life and more. When cancer intervenes to change all that he is forced into a very steep learning curve that he does everything to push away. In hospital he meets the extraordinary, impossible Marty, who forces him to confront his disease. Through her bravery he ultimately finds a way of putting his own predicament in perspective. With so much of the movie’s success resting on their shoulders, the two lead actors give remarkable debut feature film performances. Ian Mune has coaxed the best from Fisher and Si’ulepa. Si’ulepa in particular gives a performance of rare and natural talent. Given the subject matter, the story is kept remarkably unsentimental, stays focused on the relationships and avoids getting stuck in disease and despair mode. Assuaging the failure of his last venture in the teen/family genre (A Bridge to Nowhere), Mune has also managed to create a movie that delivers a simple message easily across borders, languages and cultures, but remains nevertheless a movie that is thoroughly New Zealand down to the last frame. The cynics will bleat that any story that deals with teenagers with cancer is a surefire way to pull on the heartstrings. Let them bleat, because TWOTM is a film of strength, character and honesty that every adolescent in New Zealand should be breaking down the cinema doors to see.” — Michael Lamb, Sunday Star-Times, 2/2/97

“Not many years ago the word ‘cancer’ was whispered with fear, if spoken at all. But in the brilliant new New Zealand movie The Whole of the Moon, it’s in your face. This is no Hollywood-style tear-jerker choked with melodrama and soaring violins. No, the soundtrack is as hard-edged as the story. Director and co-writer Ian Mune takes an approach both bold and empathic, never stumbling into sentimentality or mawkishness. It’s little wonder the movie has already won a string of awards. A star in the ascendancy, first-timer Nikki Si’ulepa shines as Marty, a former street kid who rules the cancer ward of a children’s hospital. She is the opposite of Kirk Mead, a teenager who has everything – looks, charm, wealth, intelligence, friends and sporting ability. When he is discovered to have a life-threatening illness Marty becomes his antagonist. However, although worlds apart, a dependency slowly develops between the two, leading to a bond of friendship through their shared struggle. Yet this is no doom and gloom movie. There is humour as well as hope, and at times you may find yourself laughing as tears are welling. The Whole of the Moon packs an emotional wallop, without losing sight of the fact it is entertainment after all.” — Louis Allen, ‘Hartnell’s Hotline’, Woman’s Day, 10/2/97

“Ian Mune, Director/co writer has produced once again one of the most moving pieces of New Zealand cinema. Not with grandeur of Hollywood (thank God), but with personal, realistic, gritty feeling. And for this Mune has to thank for this his cast, especially the two leads Toby Fisher and Nicky Si’ulepa, who are wonderfully talented with little experience of acting before. Nicky Si’ulepa just ‘has that thing’ a talent which sees her bring her character from a raw street urchin to a tender scared human being. Toby Fisher also copes well as his character rides a rollercoaster of emotions. But the real applause must go to Ian Mune whose eye for finding new talent and blending them together gives real depth to the characters and situations. The cinematography must also be commended, especially on the roof where Kirk and Marty do a spot of human kite flying (not for the faint hearted) and in the gulf of Auckland. This blends beautifully with the stark dark rabbit warrens of the hospital wards. The Whole of the Moon is the story of two opposite characters thrown together by one fatal disease and at first coping and then learning and eventually loving. The two lead actors under the guidance of one of New Zealand’s finest actors produce a heart wrenching, humourous, realistic, thought provoking film which makes you look at the moon in a whole new way.” — Tama Toa, 3/97

Screening: The Whole of the Moon screened on 28-30 April 2011 for the school holidays; 21 May 2008 as part of the Features for Kids Season.