Robert Sarkies (born 6 March 1967) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

film director and screenwriter. Sarkies grew up in the South Island city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. He attended

Kaikorai Valley College Kaikorai Valley College is a large co-educational secondary school in Dunedin, New Zealand. Initially starting as Kaikorai Valley High School in 1958, the school combined with Kenmure Intermediate School in 1996 to become Kaikorai Valley College, ...

. His three feature films to date have been set in Dunedin, or in the lower South Island. After his debut feature ''Scarfies'', Sarkies followed it in 2006 with ''Out of the Blue'', based on the 1990

Aramoana Massacre The Aramoana massacre was a spree shooting that occurred on 13 November 1990 in the small seaside township of Aramoana, northeast of Dunedin, New Zealand. Resident David Gray killed 13 people including local police Sergeant Stewart Guthrie, o ...

, then black comedy ''Two Little Boys'', starring

Bret McKenzie Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, the duo's com ...

and Australia's

Hamish Blake Hamish Donald Blake (born 11 December 1981) is an Australian comedian, television and radio presenter, actor and author. Since 2003, he has worked with Andy Lee as part of the comedy duo Hamish and Andy. The pair have performed live and on tel ...

Short films

Sarkies began making short films as a teenager with fellow filmmaker

Simon Perkins General Simon Perkins (September 17, 1771 – November 6, 1844) was an early settler, businessman and surveyor of the Western Reserve of Connecticut, which would later become northeast Ohio. He co-founded Akron, Ohio with Paul Williams in 1825. H ...

and Lindsay Chalmers. After winning an international award for his short ''Dream-makers'', Sarkies began work on his most ambitious short to date: adventure comedy ''Signing Off'' (1996), which won four international awards and helped attract funding for ''

Scarfies ''Scarfies'' (released as ''Crime 101'' in the United States) is a 1999 New Zealand black comedy film set in the southern university city of Dunedin. The film's original title comes from the local nickname for university students, scarfie, so ...

'' (1999), his feature debut. ''Signing Off'' was produced by film and television producer Lisa Chatfield.

Feature films

Sarkies co-wrote the ''Scarfies'' script with his younger brother, playwright and performer Duncan and award winning producer Lisa Chatfield. Winner of seven awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the NZ Film Awards, and a local hit, the film is part comedy, part thriller, and partly a celebration of being a university student in Dunedin. ''Scarfies'' was later released on video in the United States under the title ''Crime 101''. Sarkies' second feature was drama '' Out of the Blue'' based on the 1990

, in which a gunman killed thirteen people in a seaside town close to Dunedin. The film emphasizes realism over melodrama, partly through handheld camerawork and a naturalistic acting style. Some of those living in Aramoana expressed opposition to the film being made; others who lost people in the tragedy agreed to do interviews with scriptwriters Sarkies and Graeme Tetley. In New Zealand, ''Out of the Blue'' became the tenth most successful local film yet released theatrically (not accounting for inflation). It also won six

Qantas Film and Television Awards New Zealand film and television awards have gone by many different names and have been organised by different industry groups. As of 2017, New Zealand has relaunched a standalone New Zealand Television Awards after a five-year hiatus. The film awar ...

in September 2008, including "Best Picture - budget over $1 million". As of October 2008, Out of the Blue's rating on critics' website Rotten Tomatoes was 91 per cent.Rotten Tomatoes review
Accessed October 10, 2008 Sarkies' third feature was 2012 black comedy ''Two Little Boys'', starring

and Australian television personality

. The film is based on a book by Duncan Sarkies, about two sometime friends trying to hide the body of a tourist one of them has accidentally killed. Before making ''Out of the Blue'', the Sarkies brothers collaborated on the script for a proposed fantasy film called ''The Magnificent Magic Fingers''. The budget for ''Magic Fingers'' was estimated to be at least NZ$20 million. It is unknown whether ''Magic Fingers'' is still in development or not.

Television

In 2010, dystopian TV series ''This Is Not My Life'' debuted on New Zealand Television. The series centres around a man (played by

Charles Mesure Charles William David Mesure (born 12 August 1970) is an English Australian actor known for his work in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America. Birth and education Mesure was born in Somerset, England. When he was five, his fami ...

) who wakes up with no knowledge of the woman he appears to be married to, his children or job. Directed by Sarkies and Peter Salmon, it won a 2011 New Zealand television award for best drama series.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkies, Robert Living people New Zealand film directors Mass media people from Dunedin 1967 births People educated at Kaikorai Valley College University of Otago alumni