What the protests were about

You're right that it was not the last film Sam Neill made in New Zealand. He made two others before moving to Australia. But you are dead wrong regarding his nationality. He was born in Northern Ireland while his father, a third-generation New Zealander, was stationed there while serving in the Irish Guards. His family at one time owned the largest liquor retailer in New Zealand, thus confirming Sam's New Zealand nationality. Sam returned with his family to New Zealand in 1954 when his father retired from the Guards and has a New Zealand passport and currently resides in Queenstown, South Island (though he retains a house in Sydney also). To suggest that he is not a New Zealander because he was not born there is like saying that all those Americans who were born overseas because their parents were stationed abroad while serving in the US military are not Americans. If an American was born in Germany to military parents, does that make him/her a German national? No. The same applies to Sam's situation. The fact that he was born in Northern Ireland does not automatically make him an Ulsterman. Because Sam's mother was English, he also has dual British nationality but has not lived in that country in more than 30 years.