Reviews

Film Review: Waru (2017) By Briar Grace-Smith Charm, Casey Kaa, Ainsley Gardiner, Katie Wolfe, Chelsea Cohen, Renae Maihi, Paula Jones, Awanui Simich-Pene

Unmissable and compelling this brave Maori sisterhood movie is a precious occasion to feel the force coming from a community that is often neglected, and not just in terms of cinematic visibility.

The film was released last summer in with the aid of the New Zealand Film Commission and was picked up straight away by the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. It has consequently generated a buzz and is making its way within the festival circuit.

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Some explanations are needed. “Waru” is the collective effort of 8 (actually 9 as one is a joined work) woman Maori filmmakers who were asked by producers Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton to follow a set of strict rules; their 8 short films had to be shot in one single take of exactly 10 minutes, in real time, all set at 10am of the day of a specific event and had to have a female Maori lead. Far from gimmicky, the result is a powerful and necessary battle cry.

Waru is also the Maori word for Eight and here it's the name of a child, dead in the hand of his abusive caregiver, and whose tangi (funeral) is the event at the centre of the movie. The eight episodes revolve around the tragic event, some more peripherally than others, and they narrate the people, the communities, the layered environment and the social circumstances that have impacted and marginalised the boy and his family; as Waru's soul whispers: “When I died I saw the whole world”. In other words, it is a vibrant representation of an intersectional framework.

Each movie is named after its lead character.

Charm (Tanea Heke) – by Briar Grace-Smith – is a strong community woman, an Auntie, whose past re-emerges in the unsettling circumstances of Waru's funeral.

Anahera (Roimata Fox) by – is one of the teachers of Waru's primary school, struggling with guilt. She feels on her shoulders the sin of non-interference that the whole community has committed.

Mihi (Ngapaki Moetara) – by – is an isolated single mum on the DPB  (social welfare payment in New Zealand) whose worries and poverty risk to turn her into an abuser herself but is rescued by a simple display of empathy.

Em (Awahina Rose Ashby) – by – is a young woman who realises substance abuse mixed with motherhood is a recipe for disaster.

Ranui (Kararaina Rangihau) – by – is Waru's kuia (grandmother) and is determined to ease Waru's wairua (soul) in his transition into the afterlife but she will have to confront the other kuia in this compelling ancestral ritual “a bone for a bone”.

Kiritapu (Maria Walker) – by – is labelled a “good” Maori in the TV station where she works as a reporter but she feels it's time to speak her mind.

Mere (Acacia Hapi) – by – is a survivor, a minute teenage girl who finds in her Grandmother's tokotoko stick, the power of the ancestors and the courage to confront her giant enemy.

Titty & Bash (Amber Cureen & Miriama McDowell) – by – are two sisters on a mission and a metaphore of the two sides in all of us, instinct and fear, constantly fighting each other but also facilitating each other. Together they will get what they want.

Despite the shared guidelines, each film has a distinctive personality and yet at the same time the result is an organic narrative that starts with sorrow and finishes with action, going through guilt, acceptance, struggle and rebellion. All the protagonists women are completely exposed by the intense and unforgiving camera work and give some incredibly skilled and passionate performances.

Violence towards women and children, abuse and neglect – often resulting in death – are a significant problem in New Zealand. Here and there in the movie there are mentions of the old common place that all this violence stems from the Maori “we were warriors” attitude; it is playing on the stereotype and on an ingrained habit of diverting the blame but these titular women are indeed warriors. The film ends with Bash breaking the so-called «fourth wall» and looking straight into your soul; what looks like a call for war is actually a resonant invite to expose and discuss an urgent and complex subject matter and to pinpoint collective liability.

It is powerful, thought provoking and necessary film-making.

About the author

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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