Poppy is a CGI drama set on France's western front in World War One. Two New Zealand soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines and are trying to find their way to safety. They find an orphaned baby under it's dead parents in a ditch. One of the men wants to save it, the other does not.

Poppy is based on a true events - the writer's great-grandfather was one of the soldiers.

About the Film

Writer David Coyle was 18 years old when he wrote Poppy as a student at South Seas Film and Television School in Auckland, New Zealand. It won a pitching competition where Producer Paul Swadel was a judge. A week later Director James Cunningham discovered and presented the script to Paul. It seemed immediately clear to them both that POPPY should be produced as a short film.


Poppy took 15 months to make. A one day shoot occurred at Weta Digital in Wellington, NZ, (on Peter Jackson's new Motion Capture sound stage), with some of New Zealand's finest actors.