This post is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every week.
To celebrate our purchase of plane tickets to New Zealand in 2019, my wife and I watched one of the country’s most beloved films.
PLOT: Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughs), a young Maori girl, must struggle against tradition and her stubborn grandfather in order to become her tribe’s first female leader.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Over a dozen whales beach themselves outside Paikea’s grandfather’s house. The Maori locals exhaust themselves by spending all night covering these poor animals with wet cloths and dumping sea water over them. They even attempt to turn the largest of the whales around with a tractor. However, the rope connecting the tractor to the whale’s tail snaps. All appears to be lost. That is until Paikea climbs atop the whale and takes her place in her people’s history.
WHO IS THIS MOVIE FOR?: The movies I have watched for this project fall into 3 categories.
- Genre films where I can easily say “If you like The Exorcist…” or “If you like Pulp Fiction then you’ll love _____.”
- Non-Genre films that are so odd and off the wall I don’t know who to recommend them to. (Specifically Holy Motors or Dogtooth).
- Non-Genre films that I can safely say everyone would enjoy.
Ever since it came out in 2002, Whale Rider has fallen squarely into this third category. It is a deep, inspiring coming-of-age story whose appeal spans continents and cultures.
In fact, when I first watched the above trailer I figured it was kind of ironic. The narrator (whose voice really doesn’t match the film’s tone) promises us a movie that will “challenge” us. However, Paikea and many of the other characters are so likeable the film doesn’t feel all that challenging.
The most glaring exception is the grandfather (Rawiri Paratene). While he is not an outright villain, there are scenes where he clearly crosses the line from being a grumpy, stubborn relative and becomes a true misogynistic bastard. More than once I wanted to shout, “How can you forgive him after all the shitty things he’s said/done to you?”
And of course the short answer is, “Because he is my grandfather.” This movie is set in a world where family truly is everything, arguably more so than in our own culture. And despite everything, Paikea’s grandfather remains a character we are meant to relate to in the end. We are not meant to like the things he says, but we are meant to understand why he says them, which makes Whale Rider a more challenging film than it first appears.
According to IMDB:
Much of the film is about Paikea doing traditional Maori things women were not supposed to do, like sitting in the canoe and fighting. The cast and crew performed special Maori chants to ward off traditional bad luck that might arise from Keisha Castle-Hughes doing those things.
At the time, 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes was the youngest ever nominee for a Best Actress Academy Award. She has since been surpassed by Quvenzhané Wallis for her performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
At her audition, Keisha Castle-Hughes told casting directors that she could swim. When it came time to film the swimming scenes, she admitted she couldn’t swim. Waio Parata-Haua, Kiesha’s stunt double, did most of her swimming scenes.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT: I imagine that most library systems own a copy. You can get the DVD from Netflix. It is available to buy or rent on Amazon.
Runtime:101 minutes.
Directed by: Niki Caro
WRITTEN BY: Niki Caro
Witi Ihimaera (Book)
STARING:
