| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | WHALE RIDER (2002) |
| Director | Niki Caro |
| Writer | Niki Caro, Witi Ihimaera |
| Lead Actor | Keisha Castle-Hughes |
| Cast | Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton |
| Genre | Drama, Family |
| Release Date | August 29, 2003 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 41m(101 min) |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 7.5/10 |
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WHALE RIDER
In a summer swimming with movies about fathers and sons, this cinematic treasure about the role of a daughter in the family, the community and the culture is for everyone (except the youngest children).
In a hospital along the eastern coast of New Zealand, a young Maori mother struggles to give birth. Twins are born as her husband, Porourangi (Cliff Curtis), hovers near. When both mother and the male child die, Porourangi is devastated. His father, Koro (Rawiri Paratene), the chief of the tribe, tells him to come home to find a new wife and try for a son.
Koro’s heartless attitude is focused on the line of male descendents. Thus, he ignores the girl child, Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes). Porourangi, angry at his father and unwilling to take up his own role as the next chief, leaves Pai to his parents to raise. His ceremonial canoe sits unfinished near the shore, a sign of the struggle between ways of the old world and the new.
Koro begins to love and care for Pai, who is captivated by the myths of her people and continually asks about how their ancestor rode a whale across the ocean to New Zealand. Now 11 years old, she shows her love for her people by nagging them about their smoking.
Koro begins a special school to teach the boys of the tribe about their culture, and to develop “strength, courage, intelligence and leadership.” Although he wants to identify a prophet who will lead them, he harshly excludes Pai because she is a girl. She is irrepressible, however, and takes traditional fighting lessons from her uncle.
Whale Rider is based on the 1987 novel by New Zealand Maori author Witi Ihimaera. Three time director Niki Caro brings her own feminine perspective to the development of the characters. This is especially true of the women in the film, who are strong, gentle, loving and humorous. Although not a Maori, Caro seems to share their soul in ways reminiscent of John Sayles’s film The Secret of Roan Inish, Scott O’Dell’s novel Island of the Blue Dolphins and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s memoir Gift of the Sea.
The final 20 minutes of the film are perfectly rendered and hauntingly beautiful. Insight about family, the struggle of indigenous peoples to preserve their cultures in an always changing world, goodness, the meaning of life, and love and respect for creation. Some mild problem language and a brief drug reference.
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