Synopsis
Director: Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz
Producers: Cass Avery, Leon Kirkbeck, Gigi Pritzker, Rachel Shane, Katie Peck, Clarke Gayford
U.S., 102 min
In this compelling and inspiring portrait, filmmakers Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz vividly capture New Zealand Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Dame Jacinda Ardern’s extraordinary and heartening journey as a leader guided by compassion. At just 37-years-old, she led her country over five tumultuous years guided by her mantra: “Optimism is true moral courage.” With the help of intimate footage recorded by her husband, the film weaves together PM Ardern’s personal successes and challenges—such as battling sexism and raising a newborn—with navigating seismic national tragedies and tense moments of international diplomacy. “World leaders have rarely been captured with as much intimacy” (Variety). Winner of a Sundance Audience Award, Prime Minister is “timely and bracing” (The Hollywood Reporter), “eye-opening [and] fluidly edited” (Screen International), and “provides balm in an era of brutally toxic politics (POV Magazine).
