Prime Minister

The former chief executive of New Zealand might just restore one’s trust in politicians.

Jacinda Ardern (right) and admirers

Image courtesy of Metfilm.

The appeal at the heart of this documentary by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz is that of the woman who is screen centre: Jacinda Ardern. She was the prime minister of New Zealand for five years from 2017 to 2023 and this portrait of her concentrates on that particular period in her life. Consequently, it brings to mind another recent documentary of merit, Facing War, which with Jens Stoltenberg as its admirable central figure studied his ten years as Secretary General of Nato. That film, however, was closely concerned with the nitty-gritty of how Nato functions whereas Prime Minister chooses to focus on the beliefs and character of Ardern herself. It still means, of course, that how New Zealand handled the Covid-19 pandemic is strongly featured here and such incidents as the terrible terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch in March 2019 are also included. But even here Ardern’s own actions and her personal responses (she does not hide her emotions) are central to the film’s approach.

The directors of Prime Minister are both relative newcomers in this field but they do a good job. It’s also an advantage that they have access to home movies shot by Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford, who is one of the film’s producers. The couple started dating in 2013 but were happy to set up a home and have a daughter, Neve, before eventually marrying in 2024. Their family life is part of the picture here. For that reason, the film does acknowledge the impact of her becoming a mother within the first year of her taking on the post of prime minister. But, while the weight of this is acknowledged, the film is essentially a positive portrait of what a wife and mother can achieve when taking on a major role in society and the film positively disdains the view of those who questioned her suitability due to her being the youngest female to become a head of government (she was thirty-seven at the time).

One rather unusual feature of Prime Minister lies in the decision to concentrate so fully on Ardern and her family that the film excludes the familiar device of incorporating interviews in which family, friends, associates and experts of one kind or another give their impressions of the central figure. But that is not something that we miss and the direct focus on Ardern herself works well. We see her first in 2024 when she was a fellow at Harvard University having ceased to be New Zealand's Prime Minister in January 2023. However, we soon cut back to scenes in Wellington in 2017, the year in which the Labour Party to which she belonged was doing badly in the polls but which led to things improving when she became party leader. Before the end of the year she would find herself prime minister of a coalition government. She had not had any ambition to do that but, when the opportunity came about, she felt that she had a duty to take it on. Her personal philosophy made her a social democrat and a progressive who espoused collectivism and believed that kindness should always be key to the way in which one approached one’s duties.

Prime Minister is adroit in the way that it mixes the recent recollections filmed in 2024 with earlier reflections (as when Ardern agreed to contribute to an oral history project) and combines that with footage showing events as they happened during her five years in office. What inevitably stands out politically is the great success that she had when Covid-19 arrived and she quickly chose to declare a national emergency and announce a lockdown. The extent to which this response curbed Covid cases in New Zealand increased her popularity and in October 2020 led to her second term as prime minister. However, by 2022 Covid variants appeared and, whether or not influenced by attitudes in America, this would lead to a significant number of New Zealanders protesting against vaccination mandates and accusing Ardern of being too authoritarian. She had to bear threats against herself and her family and, while she firmly believed that it had been better to do too much rather than too little, she recognised that she had failed to keep everyone together. When she chose to step down it was in the hope that doing so might help to preserve those things that she had already achieved.

There are passing references to economic issues which played a part in all of this but they are very brief and it could well be that in not going further into that issue Prime Minister is being unduly partisan. Certainly there could have been a bit more about the changing attitude which triggered the protests while, in contrast to that, the footage included later on could have been edited down to advantage. One particular instance comes with repeated intercut scenes of Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1915. It has a place due to the way in which Ardern had come to regard Shackleton's goal of saving the lives of those with him as a shining illustration of how one should treat others, but when footage related to it comes up for a third time it is just too much.

Nevertheless, this film is a very welcome portrait of a prime minister of patent sincerity and possessed of a moral compass. At a time when so many politicians have lost the respect of the public, Ardern emerges from this film as an outstanding example of a principled leader. One notices an episode some years ago when she was in office which finds her neatly sidestepping a blunt answer when she is asked what she thinks of Donald Trump. However, while that subject does not come up again, just by being herself Jacinda Ardern is a standing reproof to the likes of Trump or Boris Johnson. The evidence of that to be found here makes Prime Minister a film well worth seeing.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Jacinda Ardern, Clarke Gayford, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford.

Dir Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz, Pro Cass Avery, Leon Kerkbeck, Gigi Pritzker, Rachel Shane, Katie Peck and Clarke Gayford, Ph Thorsten Thielow, Clarke Gayford and Leon Kirkbeck, Ed Grace Zahrah and Enat Sidi, Music Sofia deli Alessandri.

Madison Wells/Dark Doris/Divergent Pictures-Metfilm.
102 mins. USA/New Zealand. 2025. US Rel: 13 June 2025. UK Rel: 5 December 2025. Cert. 12A.