Geoff Murphy, the film-maker who was a key pioneer in the development of the modern New Zealand film industry, has died aged 80, the New Zealand film commission has confirmed.
Murphy was appointed officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit 2014.
But New Zealand was a cinematic backwater compared with its near neighbour Australia, which had produced a series of masterpieces in the 70s.
It was a huge box-office hit in New Zealand, prompting Murphy to move on to Utu, a large-scale epic “Maori western” set during the land wars of the 1870s.