Prime Minister

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https://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/prime-minister

Date Reviewed: 22/10/2025

Jacinda Ardern served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023.

When the Labour leader resigned in 2017, Ardern, then just 38, stepped up amid predictions of a crushing defeat and instead led her party to a surprise victory. The documentary PRIME MINISTER charts her life and career, focusing on her six years in office.

This is an honest and compelling portrait, not an exercise in glorification, but a revealing look at the woman behind the public image. Much of the extraordinary footage, some captured by her partner Clarke Gayford, offers rare insight into Ardern both as a leader and as a person. Through private videos, interviews, and audio recordings, we meet Jacinda the individual, and through news archives, we meet Jacinda the politician. Together, these perspectives illuminate her empathy, conviction, and the values that shaped her leadership.

The film revisits defining crises such as the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, the Whakaari/White Island eruption, and the COVID-19 pandemic, while glimpsing her interactions with world leaders and her admiration for Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, whose resilience inspired her own.

Directed by Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe, PRIME MINISTER is both deeply moving and quietly powerful, a study in courage, compassion, and authenticity. Winner of the 2025 Sundance World Cinema Documentary Audience Award, it will be released in Australian cinemas on November 6, 2025.

Reviewed by Vincent