Whale Rider
- Keisha Castle -Hughes: Paikea
- Rawiri Paratene Koro
- Vicky Haughton: Nanny Flowers
- Cliff Curtis: Porourangi
- Grant Roa: Uncle Rawiri
- Mana Taumaunu: Hemi
Whale Rider is a German - New Zealand film directed by Niki Caro from the year 2002. It is about a twelve year old girl who defies traditional Māori traditions. The film is based on a book by Witi Ihimaera.
Action
After a Māori legend came thousands of years ago the ancestor Paikea on a whale riding on the New Zealand coast and founded the village Whangara. Since then, the chief of the tribe is named Paikea and passed it to the firstborn of the male offspring.
Now, a new male heir to be born in a Maori family. But the birth goes wrong: the mother takes twins, but the mother and the male twin dying. Only the female twin survived. Nevertheless, the father calls his daughter Paikea Porourangi, much to the annoyance of his grandfather and village chiefs Koro, which is aware that it violates the Maori tradition, as the title may be worn only by the eldest male descendant.
The girl grew up with her grandparents Koro and Flowers, and Pai is called. ' Koro ' is the Māori name for an older, has the opposite one to pay respect. However, despite the apparent good relationship between Pai and Koro this they can not accept as a future new leader of her tribe, because she is not a boy. The grandparents encourage her son to re- marry and to beget a male descendants. The first seems to have no interest, but by chance it comes out that he has a relationship with a woman in Germany, and she is now pregnant. However, the woman does not want to move to New Zealand because she wants to keep her job and her family in Germany. The grandparents seem desperate, and the grandfather Koro begins, more and more openly live out his frustration and his disappointment at Pai. She endures the harsh treatment patient, since they unconscious understands that the frustration of the grandfather is not her personally, but the seemingly lack of 'real' Paikea, the male offspring.
By the grandfather Koro inform the adolescent boys of the village in old Māori customs and trained them, he hopes to find a suitable successor and courageous. Pai also want to work out, but since it is a girl, she is sent away by her grandfather Koro. Soon after, however she finds out that her father's brother at a young age was a very good Maori fighters and even won awards. With his help, the twelve -year-old Pai begins an independent training, and adjusts itself so that her grandfather and the old tradition meet.
The battle- trained village boys get from the village elders Koro the task to dive for a special whale tooth to show the fact that one of them is a real courageous fighter and Paikea, however, none of the boys solve the task successfully. Koro is also bitterly disappointed and depressed pulls back from life. Later Pai asks her uncle to show her the place in the sea with the whale tooth. Pai succeeds, it brings the whale tooth to the surface. The uncle, grandmother and all viewers will specified that Pai truly deserves the title of Paikea, even if she is a girl. At the end she rides as ' Te Rangi Kahutia ' (Eng. ' Kahutia the Heavenly ') a beached whale back into the sea. Paikea comes here almost killed. This, together with the finding of Walzahns Paikea finally achieved the acceptance by her grandfather Koro.
Background
The film paints a portrait of the conflict between Māori traditions and the modern New Zealand, who are helpless, many Māori, particularly the elderly. Koro, the elder, the grandfather holding, compulsively, almost desperately to the old customs and traditions firmly. Thus he isolated himself in his Māori community and feels misunderstood, but by no means contradicted where a Koro ( in the old traditions, this was massively punished ). In contrast, his son the modern world has turned: He lives as an artist in Germany, and has for this purpose even his daughter left behind in New Zealand, which is unimaginable in the traditional world of Māori in the family is practically everything.
Reviews
A beautiful, captured in stunning images history that represents the vibrancy of traditions and legends as well as the increasingly influential current reality of life as well as the emancipatory aspirations of the younger generations Māori convincing. (Source: filmdienst )
Photographed through painting or sculpture, is Whale Rider cultural expedition, family and emancipation drama ... Keisha Castle -Hughes is a discovery as once the young Winona Ryder. (Source: kino.de )
Whale Rider convinced just by its fairytale - mystical charm, without drifting into folklore kitsch. His message is: The modern world would lose their souls if they do not satisfy the traditions. (Source: Film Echo)
Awards
In addition to an Oscar nomination in the category Best Female Actress for Keisha Castle -Hughes, there was for the film awards at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival ( Audience Award ) and at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.