Whale Rider (2002)

Directed by: Niki Caro
Writing credits: Witi Ihimaera (novel); Niki Caro (screenplay)
Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton and Cliff Curtis

For a small budget indie movie, New Zealand's Whale Rider was a surprising -- and deserving -- success. With a budget of NZD 6 million ($3.8 million) it earned more than $20 million just in the US. It's one of those movies where every person I know who's seen it liked it. So of course, it had to go on here. It was one of those films you want to like and get behind and afterward it doesn't let you down.

When Paikea, played by 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes in her impressive debut, was born to the son of a Maori chief, her grandfather Koro's attention was on her twin brother, whom he hoped would be the next great Maori leader, delivering economic and cultural renewal to the stagnating indigenous New Zealanders.

But when her brother died in childbirth with her mother, Koro's dream of leader died with him. And Paikea, whom her father Porourangi named after their legendary ancestor who led the Maori's to New Zealand riding on the back of the whale, was just an afterthought.

Disillusioned by the cultural decay and his father's disappointment, Porourangi, played by veteran actor Cliff Curtis moves to Europe to pursue a career as an artist, leaving Paikea in the hands of Koro, who is played by Rawiri Paratene and his wife (Paikea's grandmother) Nanny Flowers, played by Vicky Haughton.

Koro warms up to Paikea -- but not very much. He still resents her and enough to say, "When she was born, that's when things went wrong for us. " When he gathers the first-born sons to teach them the Maoris' sacred traditions and find a new leader among them, he won't allow Paikea to sit in. However, with her self-conception as Koro's awaited leader so deeply seated in her identity, she has the will and will find a way to learn what she needs to be that leader.

As much as I enjoyed the film and as much as the culture and location were exotic, I can't say that it was totally original. It definitely fit into a genre, one of those intergenerational, cross-cultural dramas much like Bend it Like Beckham, except a little more complex. But that's not to say anything bad about it. There is something satisfying about seeing a film done well. And that, Whale Rider is.

As I mentioned before, it's one of those films that you want to get behind and makes you want to get behind the cultural renewal that Koro and Paikea wish to embark on. I think the film that was based on a novel by Witi Ihimaera, a Maori living in New York, has played an important role in introducing the Maori culture to the US.

I don't know how accurate the film's portrayal of the stagnation in the village is (though the film was filmed on the location of the village that it was about with the actual villagers filling in as the extras), watching the actual villagers interacting with the cast and crew in the "behind-the-scenes" featurette on the DVD, I suspect there will be a few more Maori filmmakers in the near future.