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THE DARK HORSE

By James NAPIER ROBERTSON

Second film - Post-Production 2014

Battling severe bi-polar disorder, one-time Maori speed-chess champ, Genesis Potini, is released from a psych ward into his gang brothers house, and attempts to overcome prejudice, violence and self-destructiveness to find his place in the world through a struggling chess club and his damaged nephew

- Year of production
- 2014
- Genres
- Second film, Drama
- Countries
- NEW ZEALAND
- Budget
- 3 - 5 M$
- Duration
- 120 mn
- Director(s)
- James NAPIER ROBERTSON
- ISAN
- 0000-0004-7A9C-0000-H-0000-0000-N
- Producer(s)
- Tom HERN (Four Knights Film)
- Synopsis
- When we meet Genesis, he is at a crossroads in his life...
  Once a local chess-champion, Gen has spent the last few years in and out of mental institutions battling severe bipolar disorder. Released from the Psych Ward for one more chance in society, Gen moves in with his gang-patched, distant brother, Ariki, and his nephew Mana - Ariki’s soon-to-be-patched teenage son, as well as the rest of the criminals and gang members that frequent the place.
  Needing a purpose and a reason to get out of the gang-pad, Gen joins a local chess club currently occupied by a bunch of displaced youth. On a manic impulse and desperate for a distraction from his mental illness, Gen decides to try get the club to the national Chess championship in Auckland in only six weeks time.
  On the way to the possible championship, Gen is faced with the reality of what he is attempting, the violent conflict of the gang-world he is living with, and ultimately homelessness, when Ariki kicks him out onto the streets after Mana shows an interest in joining the chess club and leaving the house also.
  Despite Gen’s attempts to push him away, Mana’s continues following Gen, putting Gen in direct conflict with Ariki, the one person who can get him put back in the Psych Ward. As the stress of Gen’s situation increases, so does the darkness of his bipolar shadow and the danger of the manic urges that come with it.