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Set in a small coastal town in New Zealand, Mysterious Ways quietly explores what it means to follow your heart in the face of adversity. At the center of the story are Reverend Peter Simmons, the vicar of St. John’s Anglican Church, and his partner Jason, a former prisoner turned local rugby coach.

Peter is an openly loving man who believes the church’s message of acceptance and compassion. Under his leadership, St. John’s parish embraces people from all walks of life. But when Peter proposes to Jason over the radio and requests to wed in the church, it awakens reaction in their tight-knit community. Not all share Peter’s progressive values, and conservative forces within the diocese move to pressure the reverend into backing down.

Directed by Paul Oremland, Mysterious Ways follows Peter and Jason’s journey with subtlety. Shot elegantly on location around Auckland, it feels...

This well-intentioned but stifling film is all too focused on pushing its cause at the expense of its characters, who are reduced to flat ciphers

‘This is us! Not a cause!” says Samoan husband-to-be Jason (Nick Afoa) in a rare moment of self-illumination in this soapy and stiflingly well-meaning gay rights drama from New Zealand. But the film is all too focused on pushing its cause: same-sex marriage and greater flexibility of religious thought. In the process, it reduces its characters to flat ciphers and divvies up surrounding society into LGBTQ+ cheerleaders and graffiti-scrawling hate-mongers.

After being in prison, rugby coach Jason gets cosy with widowed vicar Peter (Richard Short). Peter runs an enlightened parish, with a rainbow-emblazoned billboard outside the church, but discovers the limits of tolerance when he declares his intention to marry Jason on the premises. Their nearest and dearest – including Peter’s daughter Kate (Becky McEwan...

Specialty distributor Ariztical Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to New Zealand-set wholesome gay love story ‘Mysterious Ways.’ Ariztical plans a multi-platform digital release in 2024.

Written and directed by New Zealand’s Paul Oremland, the film follows a media storm that threatens the marriage between a Vicar, portrayed by Richard Short (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”) and his Samoan boyfriend, portrayed by Nick Afoa (“The Lion King”), after they announce their intentions to have a traditional wedding in the church.

The film also marks one of the first on-screen representations of what is known in the Samoan community as a fa’afafine. The character Billy is played by relative newcomer Joe Malu Folau. An integral part of Samoan culture, fa’afafine are assigned male identity at birth, but explicitly embody both masculine and feminine gender traits in a way unique to Polynesia.

The film was produced in New Zealand by...