In 1966 rural New Zealand, a sensitive teenage boy uncovers painful family secrets, suppressed war histories, and small-town hypocrisy as he fights to protect his beloved grandfather - and himself - in a society that punishes difference.
A Coming-of-Age Drama
Genre: Drama
Setting: Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, 1966
Tone: Intimate, evocative, socially conscious
Themes: Identity, silence, homophobia, colonial legacy, intergenerational trauma, resilience
Synopsis
Fourteen-year-old Callum lives under the rule of a violent, ambitious father and the weight of unspoken truths. At school, he’s bullied after graffiti exposes his romantic feelings for his best friend, Michael, who quickly distances himself. Protected only by his radical teacher, Old Billy, Callum begins to see the parallels between his own struggles and his grandfather’s trauma as a WWI veteran who’s best friend was executed for desertion while suffering from shell shock.
At home, tensions escalate as Callum’s father schemes to have his Callum’s grandfather, GT, declared incompetent so he can force through a business merger. Meanwhile, Callum forms a fragile bond with Tama, a Maori factory worker wrongly blamed for the graffiti, and experiences the disturbing realities of adult hypocrisy at a swingers’ party -where he witnesses the sexual assault of a friend.
When Callum is institutionalised and facing shock therapy after defying his father, it takes the strength of his mother, GT, and newfound allies to save him. In a powerful final act, Callum delivers a history speech that lays bare the hidden wounds of war, colonialism, and identity - earning a standing ovation as he reclaims his voice.
This is a story about courage in the face of cultural “selective” amnesia, about love in unexpected places, and about what it takes to break cycles of harm in a world that punishes difference.
