Reviewed by Dorothy – 11/06/03
I found this film so gripping that I have seen it twice and intend seeing it again. The plot is based on Witi Ihimaera’s novel Whale Rider and brought to life by the fine acting of experienced adults, especially Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, and Cliff Curtis, of Keisha Castle-Hughes playing the twelve year old girl, and of the people of the village most of whom had never acted before. The setting in the village of Whangara on the beautiful east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, and the outstanding graphics all combined to make it an enthralling visual experience.
New Zealand writer, Witi Ihimaera, was living in New York when he saw a whale spouting in the Hudson River. This brought vividly to his mind the east coast of the North Island where he had grown up. It also reminded him of the whale myth about Paikea whom Maori people of the east coast treasure as their ancestor. Paikea is believed to have come to the area on the back of a whale which rescued him when his canoe overturned. Ihimaera was moved to write Whale Rider and completed it in three weeks in 1985.
Ten years after the book was written South Pacific Pictures decided to make the story into a film and appointed as director Niki Caro. She was the right person as she was concerned to give a true picture of the Maori culture and its spiritual values, and so that she could treat the language with the respect it deserves she learnt to speak it correctly.
The story centres round Koro, the chief of the tribe, who is looking for a male heir to succeed him and return the tribe to its earlier vitality. He is deeply disappointed that his first-born son Porourangi (Cliff Curtis) is more interested in his art than in the local tribe, and he longs for the birth of his grandchild – who he believes will be a boy who can fulfil his dreams.
Early in the film Porourangi’s wife gives birth to twin babies, a boy and a girl, but their mother and the boy die, leaving the girl baby Pai (Paikea) to be cared for by Nanny Flowers, Koro’s wife. Porourangi goes away to Germany and only occasionally returns to see his daughter. Koro says bitterly that he will have nothing to do with her.
As Pai grows older Koro grudgingly comes to love her, and she feels a very strong bond with him. She accepts without complaint the fact that being a girl she is a great disappointment to him. When she is twelve her father comes home to visit and the estrangement between him and his father becomes even more bitter. Porourangi has no interest in local affairs and is returning to Germany. He asks Pai to go with him and she agrees, but when she has travelled a short distance she realises that she cannot bear to leave the coast where she has grown up. On her return she hopes her grandfather will rejoice at seeing her return, but he is more interested in training the young first-born twelve year old boys of the tribe in the traditional chants and skills of Maori warriors, especially the use of the taiaha – the long club. He refuses to include first-born twelve year old Pai in the training sessions, despite all her efforts to get him to change his mind.
The scenes showing the sea and the whales are not there merely for scenic effect. There is a strong bond between the tribe, the sea and the whales – a bond felt very strongly by Koro and Pai in particular.
When the whales begin to beach themselves to awake the tribe to its destiny there are very moving scenes as the people struggle to get them back in the water. Their efforts are doomed to fail as someone needs to be willing to be a sacrifice to save them. Pai’s sacrifice ultimately gives the tribe new vigour and heals the breach with Koro who accepts her as his heir.
Keisha Castle-Hughes as Pai is utterly convincing as the girl who accepts her grandfather’s rejection but is determined to win his acceptance and lead her people. She portrays the depth of Pai’s feelings in all the episodes in the story, but none more so than when she is on the stage at the school performance delivering the speech that has won her a special award. She has reserved a seat for Koro, but it is empty.
Rawiri Paratene’s realistic portrayal of the conservative and rigid Koro is in vivid contrast to his warm and loving granddaughter. The bitterness and the anguish he feels are expressed in his brusque rejection of his wife’s attempts to make him accept Pai. His suffering in the scenes involving the whales and Pai’s disappearance form a contrast to the joy that follows.
Nanny Flowers is forthright and expresses her ideas without hesitation, but Vicky Haughton’s acting conveys also the emotional depths of this strong woman.
Much of the emotion felt by Pai, Koro and Flowers is expressed without words. This is a film with powerful silences.
What is the message of the film? The message will not be the same for everyone who sees this film.
Some see it as a protest at the attitude to women in some Maori tribes who still do not let women speak on the marae or hold positions of leadership. However the rights of women vary greatly among the tribes, and in some tribes they are treated with great respect.
Some saw it as highlighting the impact of family acceptance or rejection of difference and the need to let succeeding generations develop their own strengths.
Others see it as showing that tribes lose their strength if they lose touch with their mythology and their ancestors.
Audiences and critics applaud the film Whale Rider The film has had the following acknowledgements: Rotterdam International Film Festival – 2003 Canal Plus Audience Award San Sebastian International Festival 2002 – Official selection Sundance Film Festival 2002 – World Cinema Audience Award Toronto Film Festival 2002 – AGF People’s Choice Award
