‘Prime Minister' Examines a New Zealand Leader and a Global Issue

New York Times

a day ago

When she became prime minister of New Zealand in 2017, Jacinda Ardern was the world's youngest female head of state, at 37. From the start, she was playing on hard mode. After giving birth to a daughter not quite eight months later, she led her country through a series of generational catastrophes — shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, a deadly volcanic eruption, the Covid-19 pandemic — all while pushing a hefty set of progressive reforms through the legislature and getting re-elected, too.
The new documentary 'Prime Minister' (in theaters) mostly covers this tumultuous period, showing how Ardern, the Labour Party leader at the time, navigated her choices while also giving space to her misgivings. But it's not a biopic or a puff piece. It's more of a memoir: a bigger story told through the events of one person's life. That tale goes far beyond Ardern, even beyond New Zealand.
The directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe drew on a variety of sources. There's footage from 2024, with Ardern teaching as a fellow at Harvard and working on her new book, 'A Different Kind of Power.' But that's just the framing device. The bulk of 'Prime Minister' leans on video that her husband, Clarke Gayford, shot during Ardern's time in office, including intimate glimpses of her home life and private thoughts, as well as audio interviews that haven't been previously released.
The result can be uncommonly frank. Ardern talks about reluctant governing and impostor syndrome. Her political journey, she says, has been a battle between two parts of herself, 'the one that says that you can't and the one that says that you have to.' She speaks her mind but is also in tune with her emotions. You can hear her voice crack when she contemplates the grieving families of the people slain in the Christchurch massacre, or considers the implications of pandemic lockdown policies on children who depend on school for food and women who will face domestic violence in isolation.
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