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AroView: Gaylene Preston, director of WAR STORIES, returns to the subject for this deeply personal yet affecting docu-drama focusing this time on a single story - that of her late father, Ed Preston.

The script is uniquely developed from transcribed interviews with her father, who is played by Tony Barry in a re-staged interview with Ms. Preston herself. Embellishing this factual-fictional device is the savvy casting of the director’s real-life daughter as her mother, Tui, in the dramatic re-creations, alongside Kiwi star Martin Henderson as the young Ed.

More dramatised material may have provided more balance and relief to a feature film anchored heavily in oral history, but Tony Barry’s avuncular charm and great skill as an actor carries the film to success, aided by Alun Bollinger’s finely-calibred cinematography and the director’s characteristic integrity.