RAIN OF THE CHILDREN

Country:	New Zealand
Language:	English / Maori
Duration:	98 minutes
Distributor:	Rialto Distribution
Director:	Vincent Ward
Starring:	Vincent Ward / Rena Owen / Temuera Morrison / Waihoroi Shortland
Classification:	M

New Zealander Vincent Ward (Vigil, The Navigator: a Medieval Odyssey) revisits his youth as a Pakeha raised amongst North Island Maori communities, and memories of Puhi, an elderly Maori woman he befriended and filmed (in an early documentary, In Spring One Plants Alone) in the 1970s.

But Ward also tells us now what he didn’t know then: of Puhi’s links to the tragic New Zealand Land Wars of the mid-19th century, and to Rua Kenana, the messianic Maori leader who emerged in their aftermath.

In part the film’s power comes from Ward’s harnessing of the CGI tools of Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital, to finally bring to life genuine legends and histories from the New Zealand landscape. But its Ward’s very old-fashioned use of his archive of original footage of Puhi, and his loving, to-camera engagement with memories of his friend, that gives us a new insight into Maori-Pakeha relations over the past 150 years.

What the Critics say!

WINNER: Grand Prix – Era New Horizons Film Festival, Poland