Kombi Nation

New Zealand 2000, 88 minutes
Dir. Grant Lahood
Rating: [M]
Genres: Comedy / Youth

Feat. Gentiane Lupi, Jason Whyte, Loren Taylor (Horsley), Geneivieve McClean

Aroview: Four young Kiwis embark on a troubled comic road trip around Europe in the iconic Kombi van.

Lupi plays a beer-swilling lass who, fresh from the backblocks, lands in London and ropes in her sister and two others for the journey, with one catch - they have to endure the attentions of a TV documentary film-crew. Featuring the classic destinations of the New Zealand OE ('Overseas Experience') such as the Pamplona bull-run, this develops as a promising study of national rituals and youthful hedonism. Soon however, the plot finds diminishing returns in an extended series of personal standoffs, though the sightseeing and eclectic soundtrack offer suitable distraction.