WINNER
VOTED BY AUDIENCE
FROM 250 FEATURE
FILMS AT POLAND'S
LARGEST FILM FESTIVAL
Directed by: Vincent Ward
Cast: Miriama Rangi, Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Taungaroa Emile, Waihoroi Shortland, Toby Morehu, Mahue Tawa, Mikaira Tawhara, Harmony Wihapi.
Total Running Time: 102 minutes
NZ Rating: M violence & offensive language
CINEMAS
PRESS IMAGES
SYNOPSIS
Some Secrets Are Kept Forever...
Vincent Ward's deeply personal and incredibly moving film unravels and re-imagines the story of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman he documented in 1978 for his early film In Spring One Plants Alone. Then she was 80 and caring for her adult son, and Ward was 21, a young art student capturing her traditional way of life...
Puhi believed herself to be cursed, and this unknowable curse is what preoccupies Ward now. Puhi, he discovers, was an extraordinary woman. Chosen by Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana to marry his son, she survived the 1916 police raid on Rua's Maungapohatu community and went on to have 14 children. Cutting between early footage, his own to-camera narration, contemporary interviews with Tuhoe descendents, and magnificently recreated historical sequences (featuring Rena Owen as the older Puhi among a superb cast of Maori actors); Ward reveals both the heartrending background of Puhi's belief in the curse, and her lasting power over him.
VINCENT WARD was awarded an Order of New Zealand Merit in 2007 for his contribution to film making.
Ward has earned international acclaim with a reputation for making films with a unique vision, on material that is always human.
Since his debut feature Vigil (1984), Ward’s films have consistently earned critical acclaim and festival attention whilst achieving a wide distribution. Vigil, The Navigator (1988) and Map of the Human Heart (1993) were the first films by a New Zealander to be officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between them they garnered close to 30 national and international awards (including the Grand Prix at festivals in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United States).
The Navigator – a Medieval Odyssey won the major awards at both the Australian and New Zealand film industry awards. What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams, was nominated for two Academy Awards (best production design and best visual effects) and won the Oscar for best visual effects in 1999.
Whilst in the United States, Ward wrote the story for Alien 3 and developed material that was the basis of Last Samurai, selecting its director, and acting as executive producer on that project before writing and directing River Queen.
Ward began writing and directing films at 18. In 1978-1981 he conceived, directed, and produced the documentary In Spring One Plants Alone, which won the Grand Prix at Cinema Du Reel (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. In Spring One Plants Alone provides the starting-point for RAIN OF THE CHILDREN.
The drama sequences of RAIN OF THE CHILDREN star Tuhoe people who have not previously acted. They are descendants or relatives of Puhi and/or Rua Kenana and were playing their ancestors. Miriama Rangi, Mikaira Tawhara and Harmony Wihapi played Puhi at different stages of her life. Other family roles were played by Toby Morehu and Mahue Tawa, also Tuhoe.
Rena Owen (Ngati Hine), who won international acclaim and awards for her performance as Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors, played Puhi in her old age (wearing extensive ageing make-up). Other roles in the dramatised sequences of the film were played by Temuera Morrison (Te Arawa), who made his international breakthrough as Jake Heke in Once Were Warriors, and went on to several Hollywood roles, including Star Wars. He recently worked with Vincent Ward in River Queen); Taungaroa Emile (Ngati Kahungunu), who began his career as Boogie in Once Were Warriors and recently starred as Soul in Toa Fraser’s No 2; and Waihoroi Shortland (Ngati Hine, Te Aupouri), known for his award-winning portrayal of Shylock in Don Selwyn’s The Maori Merchant of Venice and as the host of Maori Television’s Te Tēpu. He also wrote the screenplay for Crooked Earth (with Greg McGee), which starred Temuera Morrison.
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