IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
A brilliant but troubled New Zealand chess champion finds purpose by teaching underprivileged children about the rules of chess and life.A brilliant but troubled New Zealand chess champion finds purpose by teaching underprivileged children about the rules of chess and life.A brilliant but troubled New Zealand chess champion finds purpose by teaching underprivileged children about the rules of chess and life.
- Awards
- 26 wins & 16 nominations
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaActor Wayne Hapi who played "Ariki" had no previous acting experience before his debut in 'The Dark Horse', however as an ex gang-member he did have direct experience with the film's content. Wayne applied for an audition via email after Casting Director Yvette Reid placed a job listing at WINZ "seeking Maori Men aged 50-65yrs, tattoos and criminal records welcome!". Wayne was honoured with a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2014 New Zealand Film awards.
- GoofsIn a chess lesson, Genesis identifies the square c4 as "the Spanish square" and b5 as "the Italian square." These are the squares to which white moves the king's bishop on the third move of the Giuoco Piano, or Italian Game, and the Ruy Lopez, or Spanish Game, respectively; he's got them backward.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Talking Dead: Fear the Walking Dead (2015)
Featured review
A quiet masterpiece of storytelling
Behind the beautiful cinematography, engaging and detailed performances, and deftly-paced editing is a master work of a screenplay. A wholly empathetic protagonist, with his wellbeing so delicately balanced, bombarded by obstacles. The stakes continue to rise, the subplots interweave seamlessly, with the whole story building to a perfectly weighted, moving, climax.
Once filmmakers could be just "good" or "interesting" and pull a crowd to the cinema to see their kitchen-sink dramas. The new Golden Age of television has put paid to that. We get great storytelling and interesting ideas pushing boundaries all the time, delivered on-call to our living rooms. if filmmakers are not making blockbusters, or special effect laden sensual experiences, then the stories must be wonderful and totally captivating to get a crowd in the car and front up with the ticket price. There's no place to hide...
This film is a great reminder of why there is still a place at the cinema for a low budget, domestic drama, they just need to be this good!
Once filmmakers could be just "good" or "interesting" and pull a crowd to the cinema to see their kitchen-sink dramas. The new Golden Age of television has put paid to that. We get great storytelling and interesting ideas pushing boundaries all the time, delivered on-call to our living rooms. if filmmakers are not making blockbusters, or special effect laden sensual experiences, then the stories must be wonderful and totally captivating to get a crowd in the car and front up with the ticket price. There's no place to hide...
This film is a great reminder of why there is still a place at the cinema for a low budget, domestic drama, they just need to be this good!
helpful•195
- mbellamy
- Jan 13, 2015
- How long is The Dark Horse?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- NZ$3,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $67,533
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,152
- Apr 3, 2016
- Gross worldwide
- $1,862,114
- Runtime2 hours 4 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content