Whale Rider - Movie Recommendation
Feb. 16th, 2003 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aquila1nzI went and saw Whale Rider last night, it's a fairly small New Zealand film that is making it big. It won the People's Choice Awards at both Toronto and Sundance.
I loved the book when my mother gave it to me years ago, and was fascinated by the changed that were made to it to make it into a film. It's got some amazing New Zealand actors in it, though you won't recognise many faces from Lord of the Rings or Xena.
And the performance by the young girl in it is wonderful. Very heart wrenching and totally believable.
It's based around the canoe (settlement) legend of the Ngati Konohi people of Whangara, a small village and tribe on the East Coast. Their ancestor arrived there on the back of a whale after he fell from a canoe on the way from Hawaiki. The little girl at the centre of the story is his direct descendant, but her grandfather expected a boy to carry on the descent, and to be the great leader needed by their people in changed times.
Witi Ihimaera wrote the story when his young daughters were visiting him in New York and he took them to the movies and they complained that it was always boys who got to be the heroes and do everything. Like many of his books (except the gay one) it is set on the East Coast where he is from, and they used many local people and the actual settlement complete with it's sculpture of Paikea riding his whale on the roof of the meetinghouse in the film.
It won't be opening in the States until June, but keep an eye out for it, it is definitely a must see. I think it has already opened in Australia.
http://www.whaleriderthemovie.com/
http://www.smh.com.au/handheld/articles/2002/09/25/1032734221491.htm
The book: http://www.reed.co.nz/title.cfm?titleid=2118
I loved the book when my mother gave it to me years ago, and was fascinated by the changed that were made to it to make it into a film. It's got some amazing New Zealand actors in it, though you won't recognise many faces from Lord of the Rings or Xena.
And the performance by the young girl in it is wonderful. Very heart wrenching and totally believable.
It's based around the canoe (settlement) legend of the Ngati Konohi people of Whangara, a small village and tribe on the East Coast. Their ancestor arrived there on the back of a whale after he fell from a canoe on the way from Hawaiki. The little girl at the centre of the story is his direct descendant, but her grandfather expected a boy to carry on the descent, and to be the great leader needed by their people in changed times.
Witi Ihimaera wrote the story when his young daughters were visiting him in New York and he took them to the movies and they complained that it was always boys who got to be the heroes and do everything. Like many of his books (except the gay one) it is set on the East Coast where he is from, and they used many local people and the actual settlement complete with it's sculpture of Paikea riding his whale on the roof of the meetinghouse in the film.
It won't be opening in the States until June, but keep an eye out for it, it is definitely a must see. I think it has already opened in Australia.
http://www.whaleriderthemovie.com/
http://www.smh.com.au/handheld/articles/2002/09/25/1032734221491.htm
The book: http://www.reed.co.nz/title.cfm?titleid=2118