O Tamaiti

The title pretty much says it all, this film shows what Samoan children can go through and reveals the dark side of the Samoan way of life. The expression on the childrens faces show the grim sadness that they have to go through with the loss of innocence. Who can you blame? This film conveys it perfectly;POVERTY, it is hard to completly blame the parents, life for them is just as harsh having to work long hours to keep food on the table, their lives are stressed out and they hardly get any good time together apart from very rare occasions.Life for new immagrants to a country is hard leaving Samoa with the majority of them having no qualifications and with no alternative but to have hard-labour type jobs. They struggle can't keep their eyes on everything.

However my title for this review doesn't show one thing, the obedience of samoan children, with the loss of innocence the eldest son (who is very young) has to look after his siblings, a job that he knows he must do and does it without question, this reflects the way in which samoan children behave knowing that this is their duty and they fully understand.This is probably the only light in this dark film.

Sima Urale has done an excellent job in directing and writing this film and it is fully deserving of its award at the Venice film festival.