Ruby and Rata

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox film | name = Ruby and Rata | image = Ruby and Rata 1990.jpg | alt = | caption = | director = Gaylene Preston | producer = Gaylene Preston<br />Robin Laing | writer = Graeme Tetley | narrator = | starring = Yvonne Lawley<br />Vanessa Rare<br />Lee Metekingi<br />Simon Barnett | music = Jonathan Crayford | cinematography = Leon Narbey | editing = Paul Sutorius | studio = | distributor = | released = {{Film date|df=y|1990|10|4|New Zealand}} | runtime = 109 minutes | country = New Zealand | language = English | budget = NZD $2 million | gross = NZD $355,000 (New Zealand)<ref name=gross>{{cite news|title=Top Fourteeen New Zealand Movies Released in New Zealand|url=https://issuu.com/libuow/docs/cinemapaper1994aprno097-098|access-date=7 August 2022|issue=97–98|work=(issuu pp. 61,64)| publisher=Cinema Papers New Zealand supplement|date=April 1994|pages=15, 18}}</ref> }} '''''Ruby and Rata''''' is a 1990 New Zealand comedy-drama film, directed and produced by Gaylene Preston.<ref name="BFI">{{cite web |title=Ruby and Rata |url=http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150356788 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127231603/http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150356788 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 January 2023 |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=27 January 2023 |date=1990}}</ref>

==Plot summary== Ruby (Yvonne Lawley) is an 83-year-old woman who has just failed her driving test and is worried about her ability to cope with day-to-day life at her age. She asks her nephew Buckle (Simon Barnett), posing as a real estate agent, to arrange to lease part of the house she owns to a potential housemate to assist her with various chores. The new tenant is Rata (Vanessa Rare)—a well-dressed, smooth-talking young woman of Māori descent who works for a large finance company. Once she has moved in, it becomes apparent that Rata is actually a cleaner at the firm, has a young son named Willie (Lee Metekingi), and is in trouble with social services over welfare payments. Rata is also hoping to make it big as a singer in a punk band, The Apocalypse, which is reliant on her accessing the supposed "fortune" of her new housemate/landlady to pay for sound equipment. An unusual relationship develops between Ruby, Rata and Willie, with each of them manipulating the others in some way, but forming a bond and dependence on each other.<ref name="BFI"/><ref name=NZOS/>

==Cast== * Yvonne Lawley – Ruby * Vanessa Rare – Rata * Lee Metekingi – Willie * Simon Barnett – Buckle

==Production== ''Ruby and Rata'' was filmed in and around the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Helen |last2=Martin|first2= Sam|title=New Zealand film : 1912–1996|date=1997|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|location=Auckland [u.a.]|isbn=0195583361|edition=1. publ.}}</ref>

It was the second film made by Preston-Laing Productions (Gaylene Preston and Robin Laing), the first being the 1986 horror film ''Mr Wrong''.<ref name=atoz>{{cite book|last1=Vieth|first1=Albert |last2= Moran|first2= Errol|title=The A to Z of Australian and New Zealand cinema|date=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810863477}}</ref>

==Awards== ''Ruby and Rata'' won four awards at the 1990 NZ Film Awards: Best Editing, Best Soundtrack, Best Film Score and Best Performance (Male).<ref name=NZOS>{{cite web|title=Ruby and Rata|url=http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/ruby-and-rata-1990|website=NZ On Screen|access-date=30 October 2014}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0100522}} *[http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/ruby-and-rata-1990 ''Ruby and Rata''] at NZ On Screen

Category:1990 films Category:1990s New Zealand films Category:1990 English-language films Category:Films set in New Zealand Category:Films shot in New Zealand Category:New Zealand comedy-drama films Category:English-language comedy-drama films