Lomu
A nuanced portrait of Kiwi Tongan rugby union superstar Jonah Lomu, history’s youngest All Black, whose legend remains a beacon for Pasifika pride.
In 1994, at the age of 19, Jonah Lomu donned his first All Blacks jersey – the youngest ever to wear it. At the next year’s World Cup, the Tongan New Zealander winger’s jaw-dropping combination of power and agility redefined rugby union. Nearly 2 metres tall and 120 kilograms, Lomu could run 100 metres in 11 seconds and evade every tackle – former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons described him as “a freight train in ballet shoes”. Having grown up bilingual between Tonga and South Auckland, he used his cultural connection and Christian faith to transform the glaring spotlight of sporting glory into a torch to ignite cultural pride across the Pacific. But Lomu wasn’t superhuman. Privately, he battled nephrotic syndrome, a rare kidney disorder that would extinguish his stupendous, record-setting career.
A humble, staunch Lomu emerges here in intimate interviews with his closest family, friends and coaches, along with archival footage and previously unseen family videos. Sensitively stewarding Lomu’s world-spanning legacy are Dublin native Gavin Fitzgerald, known for documentary profiles of Liam Gallagher and Conor McGregor, and Kiwi Tongan trailblazer Vea Mafile’o (Lea Tupu’anga, MIFF 2024; For My Father’s Kingdom, MIFF 2019).
“Brilliant … an exceptional film … It’s a heartbreaking story about what it means to live with greatness, and how people both thrive and perish under the conditions of alienation and the pressures that attend it.” – The Conversation
Director Vea Mafile‘o is a guest of the festival and will be in attendance at both sessions of the film.
Tickets
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