DIRECTOR: Robert Sarkies
PRODUCER: Lisa Chatfield
PRODUCTION CO: Nightmare Productions
​SCREENPLAY: Duncan Sarkies, Robert Sarkies
PHOTOGRAPHY: Stephen Downes
EDITOR: Annie Collins
MUSIC: The Clean, The Chills, Straitjacket Fits, Look Blue Go Purple, The 3Ds and more
WITH: Willa O'Neill (Emma), Neill Rea (Scott), Ashleigh Seagar (Nicola), Taika Cohen (Alex), Charlie Bleakley (Graham), Jon Brazier (Kevin) 

FESTIVALS: Sundance

REVIEWS

“What appears at first to be an uncomplicated fast-buck windfall turns into a nightmarish spiral of increasingly violent events in Scarfies, an accomplished first feature from 26-year-old New Zealander Robert Sarkies. A Shallow Grave-type scenario bumped into a younger age bracket, this comedy-thriller about amateur criminals in over their heads charts a skillfully modulated descent into progressively darker, crazier territory…

The setting for the action is a large, dilapidated house — empty and abandoned, but with free electricity —where five assorted scarfies take up rent-free residence. Investigating the basement soon after moving in, they discover a thriving indoor marijuana plantation, and, after only minimal deliberation, they harvest the crop and sell it to some shady types for $50,000, a fraction of its worth.

Having quickly blown most of their newfound wealth, the quintet returns home to find the weed’s enraged original owner in the basement. Panicking, they lock the door on the rabid intruder and postpone decisions until after a crucial rugby match… But a solution fails to present itself, and as the hostage becomes more of a handful, relationships among the housemates deteriorate.

The tight script by the director and his brother Duncan Sarkies steadily accelerates the chaos and desperation of the situation, forcing the captors into a rash, increasingly bizarre course of action that culminates in the contemplation of murder… Director Sarkies keeps events careening along at a giddy pace, underscored by a wide variety of songs, mainly from Dunedin bands.”

– David Rooney, Variety
Click on the image below to see a trailer for Scarfies

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Dunedin
Wednesday, 05 March, 7.30pm

Whanganui   
Monday, 24 March, 7.00pm

​Hamilton   
Monday, 14 April, 6.30pm​

Nelson  
Wednesday, 30 April, 6.00pm​

Canterbury
Monday, 04 August, 7.00pm

Wellington   
Monday, 15 September, 6.15pm​

Wellington   
Monday, 15 September, 8.30pm​

Queenstown
​Tuesday, 23 September, 8.00pm
NZ FILM >> ​