Maori-style Game of Thrones a festival hit

Lawrence Makoare as The Warrior (left) and James Rolleston as Hongi in The Dead Lands.

The Dead Lands is an epic tale of vengeance set in pre-European New Zealand

New Zealand movie The Dead Lands - starring Boy's James Rolleston - was such a hot ticket at its world premiere at the Toronto International Festival yesterday that the fire brigade had to be called.

Just as the film was about to start, an alarm went off, forcing an evacuation and a wait for firefighters to give the all-clear.

Despite the delay, director Toa Fraser's Maori martial arts movie proved a hit with its audience in its debut public screening at the influential festival.

Social media reaction was positive, with tweets describing the film as like "Game of Thrones Maori style", "brutal and beautiful" and "sick" (as in good).

Fraser - in attendance with the film's stars including Rolleston and Lawrence Makoare - told the audience: "I always wanted to do something grubby, gritty, dirty and hot."

The writer-director's previous features have been the gentler likes of No. 2, Dean Spanley and ballet film Giselle.

Set in pre-European times, The Dead Lands is entirely in Maori and subtitled in English.

The film's fight scenes and costuming are a mix of traditional and "innovations including mohawks and some other cool stuff", said the movie's Maori martial arts specialist Jamus Webster.

Rolleston plays young warrior Hongi, who must avenge the murder of his rangatira father after their tribe is slaughtered. Hongi has to pass through the forbidden zone of the title and align himself with Makoare's lone warrior, who rules the region.

The film also stars an actual Warrior - rugby league star Wairangi Koopu in his screen debut. He's joined by veterans such as Makoare - whose features are usually hidden behind Orc make-up - as well as Once Were Warriors star Rena Owen, and veteran actor George Henare.

Present at The Dead Lands screening was The Dark Horse director, James Napier Robertson, whose film is also screening at the festival and also stars Rolleston.

Despite the centuries of difference, he saw parallels in Rolleston's two characters.

"In a way there's a similarity, with a young man who is lost and trying to find his own path, yet there's so many years apart in the setting. I think that's really striking."

The film is due for a New Zealand release at the end of October.