To me, she was an utter breath of fresh air during her term of NZ’s leader (and will no doubt continue to be an inspirational figure outside politics) – sincere, personable, smart, decent, respectful, and empathetic.
I think The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw summed things up in his review of the film when he wrote: “Jacinda Ardern emerges from this documentary portrait the way she did when she was in power from 2017 to 2023 … as a human being. More than any politician anywhere in the world in my adult lifetime, she looked like an actual member of the human race who was catapulted to office too fast to have acquired the defensive carapace of the professional politician. She was vulnerable and scrutable and likable in ways utterly alien to everyone else”. Meanwhile, The Telegraph described it thus: “a shameless act of self-promotion” (no surprises there perhaps… but grossly unfair in my opinion).
As you might imagine, yes, this is clearly a ‘sympathetic’ film – no doubt edited to avoid some of day-to-day infighting of internal politics… but it also shows her having to deal with such horrors as the Christchurch mosque shootings with huge compassion AND managing to ban assault rifles within a matter of days of the ordeal (are you listening America?). When Covid came along, Ardern dealt with matters both effectively and skilfully. New Zealand seemed to have been miraculously spared the worst of the outbreak, but then a new wave struck and a threatening new far-right anti-vax mob made their encampment outside parliament. That didn’t mark the end of Ardern’s time as PM but, watching the documentary, I was certainly struck by the thought ‘Why do they bother?’ – when people in her position have to withstand such appalling hate, abuse and threats – and I suspect she felt the same.
Again and again, during the film, I found myself contrasting Ardern’s compassionate, considered actions and words with Trump’s present-day non-stop narcissist rantings and disregard for facts and truthfulness.
I was in two minds about going to see this film… but I’m very glad that I did. It was a reminder about how things still COULD be (if only the world was more compassionate – some hope!?). There are very, very few films I’ve seen where the cinema audience bursts into applause at the end… they certainly did here!! Probably not Telegraph readers(!)…
