‘You shouldn’t have to trade off’: Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern on navigating motherhood and a career

‘Prime Minister’ takes viewers through Ardern’s personal and public life during her tumultuous years as New Zealand’s leader, her unexpected resignation and beyond.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern waves as she arrives at the 2025 Sundance premiere of “Prime Minister” at the Eccles Theatre in Park City on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. Kristin Murphy, Deseret News Purchase Image

A little over two years after being sworn in as prime minister of New Zealand, and after navigating the aftermath of a domestic terror attack at two mosques and a deadly volcanic eruption, Jacinda Ardern committed to being more zen.

But just a couple of months later, she found herself essentially closing New Zealand off from the rest of the world and implementing lockdowns across the country as a pandemic threatened the well-being of her citizens.

As portrayed in “Prime Minister,” a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, that sort of whiplash was a recurring theme throughout Ardern’s time as prime minister — and it was present in her life even before she assumed that leadership position.

Ardern didn’t become the leader of the Labour Party until about seven weeks before the general election in the fall of 2017. She took on the role after an unexpected resignation.

Around the same time, Ardern discovered she was pregnant. At 37, she became only the second elected leader in the world to give birth while in office.

On the surface, Ardern’s life, including her career, seemed to involve a constant game of tug and pull, a struggle between opposing forces.

But what makes “Prime Minister” such a fascinating watch is that Ardern treats all of this contrast as two sides of the same coin.

Raising a daughter while in office seems to inform Ardern’s leadership, and vice versa.