Prime Minister 5 suns

Prime Minister is an engaging documentary in the World Cinema Documentary category, from New Zealand covering the five years of the administration of the country’s first woman prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. She was filmed from just before she became leader of the Labour Party in 2017 up to her departure in 2023. The filmmakers had access to her personal life,  filming her and her partner at home as well as in her office.  The film begins and ends with connections to America as she makes visits to Harvard University inferring she has a message for Americans. Her service was quite revolutionary as she was not married to her partner and she was pregnant as she was about to take office. She expressed how she was actually more afraid of winning the office than losing.  We see how things can rapidly change for elected officials and the same is true for Ardern. She came in planning to deal with climate change and abortion rights.  But during her time in office, the mass shooting at a mosque happened, forcing the country to deal with automatic weapons and hate.  New Zealand responded with a ban on such weapons.  Then there was the eruption of a volcano killing many.  Finally,  came Covid in 2020 and the government response.  New Zealand had the distinction of enforcing a shutdown that successfully eradicated the virus from the country and Ardern played a large role in this effort.  We also see the right wing response from those who believed the conspiracy theories and objected to the Covid vaccine. These were the same beliefs of the vaccine causing the deaths that we saw in America. It was refreshing to see how she redefined leadership in a modern country while at the same time dealing with the pressures of being a mother.  America could learn a lot by paying attention to this model. Be sure to look for this movie.