A foreign film crew is scouring our hills and valleys for a valuable commodity that is both abundant, but hard to pinpoint.
Members of the crew speak about their quest with an intensity that suggests their pursuit is up there with the hunt for the source of the Nile, the Holy Grail, or Atlantis.
So what is it they are looking for?
Kees Meeuws is one of several former All Blacks and rugby identities who Borthwick and Fernandel interviewed on their recce tour.
Not the prosaic feature of 30 players chasing an oval ball across a paddock between two posts. They are searching for the enigmatic reasons that this humble game became such a part of our nation and way of life.
Because love it, hate it, or be indifferent toward it, there is no denying the two are inextricably linked.
The project was a concept developed by French documentary maker Nicolas Mucchielli and renown French rugby correspondent and author Ian Borthwick - a Kiwi who has called Paris home for the past four decades.
Over the past couple of months Borthwick and director Vincent Fernandel have made a recce to most corners of the country, and many rugby identities along the way, to lay the groundwork for a full film crew that starts filming in earnest later this year.
The 90-minute documentary has a working title of 'Voyage to the heart of black magic'.
It is loosely based on a book written by Borthwick, "All Blacks, Au cœur de la Magie Noire" ('All Blacks in the Heart of Black Magic').
Borthwick met Daniel Carter's father Neville Carter at the Southbridge Rugby Club.
The fact Borthwick is a Kiwi was useful, of course, but possibly not as much as his ability to look at things as an "outsider".
"I've spent some 35 years covering rugby and the All Blacks around the world. I was able to look at it from a different perspective, from the people who maybe can't see the forest from the trees, and who maybe don't ask themselves that question because it's so obvious; 'We're the best because we're the best'," he said.
"It's not just the French who are mystified as to how this little south Pacific nation dominates world rugby. Many people are. When I was asked by the editor of 'Black Magic' to write a book about the All Blacks I thought about it and if you look at the stats, the All Blacks are the most successful team in the history of world sport. The next question, of course, is why? The book went some way to explain the ingredients," he said.
Of course rugby's prevalence, and the All Black's dominance, is partly a result of the earliest All Black teams winning their matches, with the effect that the young nation gravitated toward the sport like no other. And perhaps that is the simple explanation as to the game's place in our culture, but can it be the full story?
Fernandel, 35, doesn't think so.
"It's like Graham Mourie told me; rugby is a very simple, but very complex game. I can see and feel things here that I have not seen or felt before. In Paris when we started working on this project Ian showed me a lot of footage and gave me novels on New Zealand to read; John Mulgan, Lloyd Jones, Alan Duff and so on. But it was very intellectual work, sitting in an office," he said.
"The moment I arrived here I felt there was something more, something real. The day in Dunedin when we saw kids, ten or twelve, training at rugby, with all the happiness and respect and the joy to be together... I put my camera in slow motion and shot two hours of film. To be frank with you, I have not seen anything that powerful for a long time. In France, unfortunately, it is not the same thing. There is a meaning to these kids. You can feel it."
"I know you think the French are passionate people, but we are not as passionate as you," Fernandel said.
Hang on. Us? The ones called the "Passionless people"? We're more passionate than one of the most romantic nations and people on earth? What about Les Marseillaise? Get off the grass, man.
"Well, yes Les Marseillaise is pretty hard to beat," Borthwick chips in.
"But when it comes to sport nothing in France comes close. In New Zealand the passion is more an interior thing. It's not about being mad supporters, it's about analysing the game. You just have to walk around to see that. It's part of the culture".
The documentary will start on the Otago peninsula at the grave of Thomas, or Tamati, Ellison.
"He was the first All Black captain, and the guy who came up with the black jersey and silver fern. So it made sense to start there and move north," Borthwick said.
The final form of the documentary is not known, but it's likely to revolve heavily around the images, Fernandel said.
"It won't be an odyssey but it will be an inner trip revolving to some extent around Ian. I think if it was not incarnated by someone there would only be talking heads, postcard shots and famous All Blacks. The audience would not be emotionally connected to it. When I met Ian I was moved by his story as much as I was by the story of the All Blacks. Here was this guy after 40 years in France who still had this love for his home and a desire to come back and discover his own culture. To me it's just such a universal thing. Even an audience not interested in rugby may be interested by that," he said.
"There is an advantage in the distance from which I am approaching it, I believe. I have been guided into the journey by Ian, and my goal, my purpose, is to guide the audience in the same way I have been guided," he said.
"Yes, it's a cliche to say 'rugby is in New Zealander's DNA', but everyone knows what is meant by that, and the goal of the documentary is to find out why this is so," Fernandel said.
As to their confidence of finding an answer, Borthwick said "Well, we have several leads, several strands".
"Maybe I believe I have found it. It's something I have written about before. The country and the game grew up together, and there's no other country in the world where a sport and a country are so identified with each other. Of course, there is no one answer, no 'holy grail', but I do think we will go some way to explaining it," he said.
The documentary will be released in the months prior to next year's World Cup in Japan.
Fernandel (who is the grandson of French movie icon, 'Fernandel') returned to France this month, but Borthwick is staying on for the French test series against the All Blacks next month. Of course.
- Stuff
