 The film has since grossed well over $1 million at the New Zealand box-office taking it into the top ten highest grossing local films.The film is based on the Aramoana massacre that occurred over a period of two days in mid November 1990 in a small seaside settlement in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand.The small coastal community of Aramoana (Māori for "pathway to the sea") lies on the edge of the Pacific Ocean at the base of a narrow sandy spit which juts into the mouth of Otago Harbour, 27 kilometres northeast of the city of Dunedin.