"There's one final test - a test of your spirit." Madman Films in Australia has revealed a new 20th anniv. trailer for the beloved New Zealand classic Whale Rider. It originally premiered at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival, which is the date they're using for the anniversary, despite not opening it theaters until 2003. The indie film ended up earning an impressive 20 million at the box office in 2003 after playing for months in art house theaters. Spunky and determined 12-year-old Paikea, played by Keisha Castle-Hughes, must both challenge tradition and embrace the past in order to find the strength to lead her people forward in this critically acclaimed story of bravery, perseverance, and whānau. It's a contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny that her grandfather refuses to recognize. Keisha Castle-Hughes even went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for her performance.
- 10/18/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
'Whale Rider' tops at N.Z. nods
SYDNEY -- Niki Caro's acclaimed Whale Rider swept the annual New Zealand Film Awards Monday night, winning in nine categories, including best film for producers Tim Sanders and John Barnett, best director for Caro and best actress for Keisha Castle-Hughes. It also won the award for best screenplay, which was accepted on Caro's behalf by Witi Ihimaera, author of the book on which the feature film is based. Mana Taumaunu won the best juvenile performer award for his role in the film and Lisa Gerrard won the award for best original music.
- 12/9/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Whale Rider
Opens
June 6, Los Angeles and New York
Maori tradition undergoes a seismic shift with tremendous grace in Whale Rider, writer-director Niki Caro's moving adaptation of the popular novel by Witi Ihimaera.
Centering on a young girl who must defy her grandfather to take a leadership position in her community, the film boasts a terrific newcomer in the lead role, exquisite widescreen photography and a powerful sense of place.
Shot on tribal property in Whangara on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, with the participation of Ngati Konohi elders and tribe members, Whale Rider conveys a deep respect for a culture that will feel foreign, in the best of ways, to most American viewers -- startling, vital, mysterious. The recipient of audience nods at Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam, the New Zealand-German co-production should ride steady waves of boxoffice returns in limited release.
Played without an ounce of cutesiness by gangly, pretty Keisha Castle-Hughes, 11 at the time of filming, Pai is a bright, self-confident girl being raised by her grandparents (Rawiri Para-tene and Vicky Haughton) in Whangara. From the moment she entered the world, her life has been haunted by the childbirth deaths of her mother and her twin brother, the tribe's intended chief. Her grief-stricken father (Cliff Curtis), in an act of defiance, named her after Paikea, the legendary male ancestor who reached what is now New Zealand on the back of a whale.
Pai's grandfather, Koro, holds firmly to the tribal tradition that passes down the mantle of leadership from firstborn son to firstborn son, and though he and Pai love each other intensely, his disappointment over not having a grandson hovers between them like a ghost. Painfully aware that she broke the patrilineal chain -- He died, she says of her twin, "and I didn't" -- Pai draws encouragement and common sense from her strong-willed grandmother.
Playing a man so consumed with the past and future that he doesn't see what's right before him, Paratene at first seems to take the humorless Koro to wooden extremes. But as the story progresses, his performance expresses a toxic rigidity whose flip side is paralyzing depression, while Haughton is a level-headed counterforce.
Koro's disappointment began with his sons: His children's generation is listless and dislocated, the boys grown into semi-absent fathers. Pai's dad, who's turned his traditional carving talents into a fine-arts career in Germany, is caught between two cultures, while his genial brother, Rawiri (Grant Noa), has grown fat and lazy. Determined to find a new leader for his people, Koro begins teaching village boys the ways of the warrior, and when the layabout fathers watch their sons perform traditional chants, they look both proud and abashed, Caro and the actors making the point sans dialogue.
Driving the story is a profound connection to place, especially to the sea. Alternately spangled turquoise and silty gray, the ocean is an essential character, as are the whales that communicate with Pai. Through lush underwater photography, digital effects and models, a pod of whales makes a dramatic third-act appearance, in a sequence that speaks volumes about the spiritual bonds of community.
In her sophomore feature, Caro (Memory and Desire) tells a triumphant story in direct fashion. Her themes are clear but not heavy-handed, and the indigenous elements of Whale Rider help the film transcend its formulaic structure. She has a fine protagonist in Castle-Hughes, whose resilient Pai regards Koro with compassion even as he stubbornly tries to deny her destiny. Young Whangara resident Mana Taumaunu -- whose grandfather, tribal elder Hone Taumaunu, served as an adviser to the filmmakers -- makes an impression as Pai's friend Hemi.
WHALE RIDER
Newmarket Films
South Pacific Pictures, ApolloMedia and Pandora Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Niki Caro
Based on the novel by: Witi Ihimaera
Producers: Tim Sanders, John Barnett, Frank Hubner
Executive producers: Bill Gavin, Linda Goldstein Knowlton
Director of photography: Leon Narbey
Production designer: Grant Major
Music: Lisa Gerrard
Co-producer: Reinhard Brundig
Costume designer: Kristy Cameron
Editor: David Coulson
Cast:
Pai: Keisha Castle-Hughes
Koro: Rawiri Paratene
Nanny Flowers: Vicky Haughton
Porourangi: Cliff Curtis
Uncle Rawiri: Grant Noa
Hemi: Mana Taumaunu
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
June 6, Los Angeles and New York
Maori tradition undergoes a seismic shift with tremendous grace in Whale Rider, writer-director Niki Caro's moving adaptation of the popular novel by Witi Ihimaera.
Centering on a young girl who must defy her grandfather to take a leadership position in her community, the film boasts a terrific newcomer in the lead role, exquisite widescreen photography and a powerful sense of place.
Shot on tribal property in Whangara on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, with the participation of Ngati Konohi elders and tribe members, Whale Rider conveys a deep respect for a culture that will feel foreign, in the best of ways, to most American viewers -- startling, vital, mysterious. The recipient of audience nods at Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam, the New Zealand-German co-production should ride steady waves of boxoffice returns in limited release.
Played without an ounce of cutesiness by gangly, pretty Keisha Castle-Hughes, 11 at the time of filming, Pai is a bright, self-confident girl being raised by her grandparents (Rawiri Para-tene and Vicky Haughton) in Whangara. From the moment she entered the world, her life has been haunted by the childbirth deaths of her mother and her twin brother, the tribe's intended chief. Her grief-stricken father (Cliff Curtis), in an act of defiance, named her after Paikea, the legendary male ancestor who reached what is now New Zealand on the back of a whale.
Pai's grandfather, Koro, holds firmly to the tribal tradition that passes down the mantle of leadership from firstborn son to firstborn son, and though he and Pai love each other intensely, his disappointment over not having a grandson hovers between them like a ghost. Painfully aware that she broke the patrilineal chain -- He died, she says of her twin, "and I didn't" -- Pai draws encouragement and common sense from her strong-willed grandmother.
Playing a man so consumed with the past and future that he doesn't see what's right before him, Paratene at first seems to take the humorless Koro to wooden extremes. But as the story progresses, his performance expresses a toxic rigidity whose flip side is paralyzing depression, while Haughton is a level-headed counterforce.
Koro's disappointment began with his sons: His children's generation is listless and dislocated, the boys grown into semi-absent fathers. Pai's dad, who's turned his traditional carving talents into a fine-arts career in Germany, is caught between two cultures, while his genial brother, Rawiri (Grant Noa), has grown fat and lazy. Determined to find a new leader for his people, Koro begins teaching village boys the ways of the warrior, and when the layabout fathers watch their sons perform traditional chants, they look both proud and abashed, Caro and the actors making the point sans dialogue.
Driving the story is a profound connection to place, especially to the sea. Alternately spangled turquoise and silty gray, the ocean is an essential character, as are the whales that communicate with Pai. Through lush underwater photography, digital effects and models, a pod of whales makes a dramatic third-act appearance, in a sequence that speaks volumes about the spiritual bonds of community.
In her sophomore feature, Caro (Memory and Desire) tells a triumphant story in direct fashion. Her themes are clear but not heavy-handed, and the indigenous elements of Whale Rider help the film transcend its formulaic structure. She has a fine protagonist in Castle-Hughes, whose resilient Pai regards Koro with compassion even as he stubbornly tries to deny her destiny. Young Whangara resident Mana Taumaunu -- whose grandfather, tribal elder Hone Taumaunu, served as an adviser to the filmmakers -- makes an impression as Pai's friend Hemi.
WHALE RIDER
Newmarket Films
South Pacific Pictures, ApolloMedia and Pandora Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Niki Caro
Based on the novel by: Witi Ihimaera
Producers: Tim Sanders, John Barnett, Frank Hubner
Executive producers: Bill Gavin, Linda Goldstein Knowlton
Director of photography: Leon Narbey
Production designer: Grant Major
Music: Lisa Gerrard
Co-producer: Reinhard Brundig
Costume designer: Kristy Cameron
Editor: David Coulson
Cast:
Pai: Keisha Castle-Hughes
Koro: Rawiri Paratene
Nanny Flowers: Vicky Haughton
Porourangi: Cliff Curtis
Uncle Rawiri: Grant Noa
Hemi: Mana Taumaunu
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/16/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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