Director: Hamish Bennett, Paul Middleditch
Seventeen-year-old Josh has spent his whole life avoiding hard choices. Uproar, the 2023 New Zealand drama from directors Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch, is about the moment that stops being possible.
What is Uproar about?
Josh has built a habit of staying neutral, never picking a side about his identity, his Maori heritage, or the tensions inside his own family. When a national rugby tour sparks protests across the country, the pressure around him grows too large to sidestep. He's pushed to figure out where he actually stands, with his whanau, with his community, and with his own sense of who he wants to become, instead of continuing to sit on the fence he has occupied for years.
Cast & crew
Julian Dennison stars as Josh, with Minnie Driver, Rhys Darby, James Rolleston, Erana James, Mabelle Dennison, Jada Fa'atui, and Aleni Tufuga rounding out the cast. Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch share directing duties, balancing the film's family scenes with its wider backdrop of public unrest.
Context & significance
Uproar premiered in 2023 as a New Zealand production set against a real period of national tension around a touring rugby team, using that backdrop to frame a personal story about identity rather than a straightforward sports narrative. Its focus on a teenager caught between family loyalty and public protest gives it common ground with other recent coming-of-age dramas that use a specific historical flashpoint to sharpen a young character's choices. The film treats the protests as an outside pressure that forces Josh to define himself, rather than as the central subject of the story.
Where & how to watch
The film streams on K-Time with a Farsi dub, letting Persian-speaking audiences follow Josh's story in their own language. There's no login needed to read this page, and watching the film only calls for a free K-Time account, part of a Farsi-first catalog built with the Iranian diaspora in mind. The dub makes the family arguments and community scenes just as easy to follow as the quieter moments.