A powerful documentary about the huge movement in Aotearoa New Zealand that rose up against the 1981 Springbok rugby tour from apartheid South Africa. Directed by Merata Mita, a Māori woman and one of the first Indigenous filmmakers in the country.

Filmed in the streets, on picket lines, and during violent clashes with police, Patu! shows how tens of thousands of people came together to stop “business as usual” with a racist regime.

The film shows how the anti–Springbok Tour movement’s tactics grow more intense, shifting from small planning meetings and information campaigns to huge marches, stadium protests and risky direct action, highlighting the rising force of both creative and strategic resistance. By taking viewers inside groups like Halt All Racist Tours (HART), the film shows tense arguments over methods, discipline and non-violence as the movement keeps adjusting its approach under growing state and public pressure. Mita’s editing links planning to action by cutting between shocking police baton attacks and footage of role-play drills where activists prepare for that violence, showing how closely planning and real events connect.

The anti-tour movement shown in Patu! did not stop the 1981 Springbok tour, but it forced a national reckoning in New Zealand, making support for apartheid sport politically and socially unacceptable and helping ensure no further Springbok tours took place while apartheid lasted. By mobilising more than 100,000 people across the country, linking apartheid in South Africa to racism against Māori and Pasifika at home, and exposing police violence on New Zealand streets, the movement tied local protest to a global anti-apartheid campaign that helped isolate South Africa internationally.