The Film
The Hollow Men
The inside story of a National Party election campaign
The most explosive book in New Zealand political history is now a film.
Don Brash stepped down as leader of the National Party in November 2006, the day before the release of investigative journalist, Nicky Hager's book The Hollow Men.
Award-winning documentary maker Alister Barry (Someone Else's Country, In a Land of Plenty) brings this exposé of behind-the-scenes politics in an all-too-real political thriller.
We watch the Brash team develop and then put into effect their plans to win the 2005 general election. Once in power they intended to complete the radical right transformation of New Zealand society - their 'unfinished business' from the 1980s and 1990s. Helped by Australian and American political strategists, and funded by big business and a tiny elite of the super rich, the Brash team deftly played the race card, the immigration card, the tax cut card and 'dog whistle' politics, in an attempt to influence so-called 'soft voters'.
Based on thousands of confidential emails, reports and memos written by Bash and his closest advisers, The Hollow Men is an extraordinary story of unprincipled and anti-democratic politics.
Special Feature
A 20 minute interview with the author, Nicky Hager.