Tracker (2010 film)

Arjan van Diemen is a renowned Afrikaner commando leader of the Second Boer War, and a master tracker. After the end of the war, after the defeat by the British, he emigrates from South Africa to Auckland in the British colony of New Zealand, but is recognised by Sergeant-Major Saunders, a British soldier who also fought in the Second Boer War, and is arrested upon entry. Major Carlysle, also a British Boer War veteran, and now the officer in charge of the British garrison in Auckland, respects van Diemen as a former opponent and releases him. Carlysle also harbors the thought that British soldiers burned down van Diemen's farm killing his family.

Meanwhile, Kereama, a Maori harpooner on a whaling ship, sleeps with a prostitute in an army stable. A drunk Sergeant-Major Saunders arrives with two of his comrades become angry at the Maori coupling with "pure British women". He and his comrades then beat and taunt Kereama, who fights back; in the confusion Saunders accidentally kills one of his own men. Saunders evades responsibility by blaming Kereama. Kereama knows that he will not have a fair trial and runs. After Saunders convinces a skeptical Major Carlysle of Kereama's guilt, Carlysle with Bryce, a civilian tracker, and a posse of soldiers pursues Kereama. Carlysle knows that van Diemen is a master tracker and offers him a substantial reward to help them.

As they track Kereama, the civilian tracker and van Diemen disagree over which way he has gone. Van Diemen takes a different path and eventually surprises and captures Kereama. Kereama persistently protests his innocence of the murder of the soldier as van Diemen takes him back, and says he will not have a fair trial. Notwithstanding their common traumas at the hands of the British, van Diemen refuses to release Kereama and they make their way back across the New Zealand landscape heading for the British garrison and the prisoner’s certain execution. Kereama escapes, van Diemen catches up to him and they fight but Kereama gains the upper hand. Kereama is on the verge of killing him when the soldiers catch up to them and take him prisoner. That night having developed sympathy for Kereama, van Diemen drops a knife allowing him to escape.

In the morning, van Diemen denies that he helped Kereama to escape and departs the company. The soldiers set out to track and kill Kereama now that he is armed with a rifle he made off with in the night. Van Diemen tracks Kereama setting a false trail for Bryce and the soldiers knowing they will only be misled briefly. He follows Kereama to the sacred place of his ancestors high in the mountains. Kereama enters into a mountain cave to pray to his ancestors while van Diemen prays on his dead family.

Van Diemen, now on Kereama's side, explains why during the Boer War he would cut off the trigger finger of British soldiers prisoners, "It was to keep good men from sinning again". He formulas a plan for Kereama to leave New Zealand if they can avoid the soldiers. Unfortunately, Kereama falls and injures himself. Unable to run and boxed in by the soldiers, van Diemen offers a pistol to Kereama to fight them, but Kereama refuses to kill. He asks van Diemen to kill him as he will not die like his father "hanging from a post". On the edge of a waterfall, van Diemen appears to shoot Kereama from behind and he tumbles into the pool below. The soldiers hear the shot and rush to the falls, where van Diemen shows them the amputated finger of Kereama with his body under the falls. The company departs with van Diemen asking them to bury Kereama's but Carlysle refuses.

Back in Auckland, Carlyle sees a man with his head under a spigot, reminding him of the waterfall, and realizes that Kereama is still alive. He issues an order to check and arrest any Maori leaving New Zealand with a missing trigger finger. Carlysle tracks down van Diemen who is leaving for van Diemen's land Australia, without his reward. Carlysle accuses van Diemen of only knocking Kereama unconscious and cutting off Kereama's finger to fake his death, which in flashback, appears to be true. Van Diemen denies this and confronts Carlysle with the question as to whether he gave the order to burn his farm. Carlysle says no and van Diemen departs. At a whaling station Kereama signs onto a ship revealing that he has all of his fingers while being rowed out to the transport ship van Diemen is revealed to be missing his trigger finger.

The cast consists of British and New Zealand actors.[2]

• Ray Winstone as Arjan van Diemen
• Temuera Morrison as Kereama
• Gareth Reeves as Major Pritchard Carlysle
• Mark Mitchinson as Sergeant-Major Saunders
• Dan Musgrove as Private Rennick
• Andy Anderson as Bryce
• Mick Rose as Sergeant Leybourne
• Jodie Hillock as Lucy
• Jed Brophy as Corporal Barker

The film was directed by Ian Sharp and written by Nicolas Van Pallandt.[3] It is a co-production of the UK Film Council and New Zealand Film Commission.

It was shot around the Queenstown lakes area of South Island.[4]

Tracker opened in the UK on 22 April 2011.[5] The film went to DVD in June 2011, distributed internationally by Kaleidoscope Entertainment.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 85% based on reviews from 13 critics.[6]

David Edwards of the Daily Mirror gave the film 4/5 and praised the lead performances: "Watching Temuera Morrison and Ray Winstone clash is every bit as electrifying as you'd expect, like a pair of roaring juggernauts colliding at 90mph."[7] Trevor Johnston of Radio Times gave it 3/5 and wrote: "Ultimately, the drama's more satisfying than exciting, but it's a solid entertainment nonetheless."[8] Anna Smith of Empire called it "An intermittently exciting chase adventure with rich period detail."[9] Xan Brooks of The Guardian gave it 2/5 and wrote: "The scenery is glorious, but the movie's a hard slog all the same."[10]

Tracker made official selection for the Toronto and Valencia film festivals.[11][12]

• Official website
• Tracker at IMDb