Pike River (2025)
Written by Fiona Samuel
Directed by Robert Sarkies
Starring Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm
A film depicting the events surrounding one of Aotearoa’s worst industrial tragedies premiered on June 7 at the Sydney Film Festival.
Twenty-nine men were killed in the Pike River Mine disaster, after several large methane gas explosions ripped through the coal mine on the South Island’s west coast in November 2010.
Pike River, written by Fiona Samuel and directed by Robert Sarkies, tells the story of two women who lost loved ones in the tragedy and their 15-year fight for justice and accountability.
Sonya Rockhouse (Robyn Malcolm) lost her 21-year-old son Ben and Anna Osborne (Melanie Lynskey) her husband, Milton. In the aftermath of the tragedy the families of the 29 victims banded together to seek answers and push for their loved one’s bodies to be recovered.
They came up against the National government of the time, led by John Key, and Pike River mine executives, who were seeking to escape accountability.
A Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2012 found that the disaster was preventable and the result of systemic failures by the owner of the mine, Pike River Coal. Under financial and delivery pressures, the company had placed production and profits ahead of workers’ safety. The Commission also found the government culpable due to oversight failures by the Department of Labour.
Criminal charges against Peter Whittall, Pike River Coal CEO, were dropped after he offered make a payment of NZD $3.41 million to the victims’ families. The controversial “cash for no conviction” arrangement was widely criticised at the time.
The announcement, in 2016, that the mine was going to be sealed with concrete, ensuring the bodies of their men would never be recovered, spurred the families into action.
Pike River portrays their real-life protests at the entrance to the mine, led by Rockhouse and Osborne. “If they want to seal our boys in that mine, they’ll have to run us down to do it,” Osborne said at the time.
Their actions convinced the company engaged to pour the concrete to withdraw from the contract in solidarity with the families.
The film also follows the Rockhouse and Osborne’s battle to hold the government to account. They challenged the decision to allow Whittall to pay the victims’ families off in court in 2017. The High Court eventually ruled the decision to drop charges in exchange for payment was unlawful. However, because of law’s limitations, the charges against Whittall were never reinstated.
This outstanding film is an inspiring portrait of two ordinary women’s fight for justice, told alongside their journey through grief and friendship.
Rockhouse and Osborne attended the premiere at the State Theatre, along with several of the cast and crew, including lead actor Malcolm and director Sarkies. Rockhouse and Osborne were given a standing ovation.
The pair explained during a Q&A session that their fight for justice is still ongoing. Almost 15 years later, the Pike River families continue to seek convictions for those responsible for the tragedy.
In response to a question, crew member Tony Sutorius criticised Aotearoa’s current Coalition government for changes to WorkSafe NZ. He said the recent announcement that WorkSafe’s focus would shift from prosecuting to educating employers shows that the government is more concerned that “managers and boards of directors are lying awake at night feeling upset about the risk that they might face prosecution”.
He ended by saying: “Even after Pike River we don’t really seem to have quite learned the lesson … people shouldn’t ever believe that companies won’t behave in a way that kills [sic] people if they feel they need to for financial reasons. They will and they did.”
Pike River will be released in Aotearoa in October.