|   According
to legend, the Maoris came to Aotearoa (present-day
New Zealand) from a distant place led by Paikea,
a chief who rode on the back of a whale. Whale
Rider,
based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera, contemporaneanizes
the legend. Koro (played by Rawiri Paratene) claims
to be a descendant of the original Maori chief, having
passed various tests in his youth under the tutelage
of his father. Koro's son Porourangi (played by Cliff
Curtis), however, has failed the tests, so Koro hopes
that a grandson will carry on the tradition. When
the film begins, Porourangi's spouse dies while giving
birth to twins--a son, who is stillborn, and a daughter,
Pai. In search of his own identity, Porourangi then
goes to Europe, where he enjoys success in an artistic
career, and he eventually marries a German wife.
Koro, nevertheless, perseveres in trying to find
a new chief from among the boys of his Maori village,
where he perceives that the strong Maori spirit is
dying under the weight of effete Western culture,
a theme sadly explored in Once Were Warriors (1994).
(The final title of the film is a dedication "To
Those Who Came Before.") Twelve-year-old Pai
(played by Keisha Castle-Hughes), nevertheless, tries
to join Koro's leadership training sessions, but
is rebuffed because she is a girl. One day, as a
final test for the boys, Koro takes them away from
shore on a boat. He throws overboard the tooth of
a whale that he has been carrying around his neck
as a sign of his status as chief, and he asks the
boys to retrieve the tooth from the depths. None
passes the test, however. Accordingly, Koro returns
home, so disappointed that he goes to bed and refuses
to get up. Soon, some of Koro's relatives go out
on a boat to fish; when they reach the place where
the tooth was thrown overboard, Pai suddenly jumps
into the water and in a minute or two emerges with
the treasured object. She has passed the test and
has the right to wear the tooth as the new chief.
But there is one more test, albeit unexpected. One
night, several whales end up stranded on the beach
of the village. The next day, efforts of the villagers
to pull the largest whale into the water prove to
be in vain. Soon, Pai strides up to the whale, says
something in Maori, climbs to the top of the whale,
and then rides as the whale returns to the water.
As the film's tagline says, "One young girl
dared to confront the past, change the present and
determine the future." Directed by Niki Caro,
Whale Rider not only shows the resilience of Maori
culture, including some of the native customs and
dances, and also the flexibility of that culture
in accepting a female on an equal basis with males. MH
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want to comment on this film |
The Whale Rider
by Witi Ihimaera
Eight-year-old
Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New
Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership,
and her destiny.
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