Mahana - A Maori saga
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Mahana - A Maori saga |
| Original title | Mahana |
| Country of production | New Zealand |
| original language | English , Māori |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lee Tamahori |
| script | John Collee |
| production |
Janine Dickins , Robin Scholes |
| music |
Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper , Tama Waipara |
| camera | Ginny Loane |
| cut |
Michael Horton , Jonathan Woodford-Robinson |
| occupation | |
| |
Mahana - A Maori Saga (original title: Mahana , internationally also The Patriarch ) is a New Zealand feature film by the director Lee Tamahori from the year 2016. The film is based on the novel Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies by the New Zealand writer Witi Ihimaera from 1994.
action
As the head of a large clan of Maori sheep shearers on the east coast of New Zealand in the 1960s, the patriarch Tamihana Mahana led a strict regime. For decades it helped the family achieve economic success, but also fueled conflicts and tensions. For example, there is a marked rivalry between the Mahana and Poata families.
Tamihana's 14-year-old grandson Simeon often has to help with housework and running the farm on the orders of his grandfather. Increasingly, he questions this life and rebels against his grandfather. This culminates in the fact that Tamihana banishes Simeon with his parents and siblings from his property and disinherits Simeon. Simeon's close relatives now have to live in a dilapidated house that belongs to Grandmother Ramona. Later on, Simeon and family members took part in a sheep-shearing competition.
After Tamihana dies of cancer, the Poata family disrupts his memorial service. In order to de-escalate the situation and prevent violence, Simeon speaks up in front of the assembled two families and reveals a decade-old secret of his grandparents that he recently discovered: Tamihana's current widow Ramona was once promised to the current head of the Poata family at a young age. However, Tamihana raped and impregnated the Rupeni Poata-loving Ramona in her new house and then Ramona had to marry Tamihana according to patriarchal rules and give birth to a total of five children. Now at the funeral, the widow Ramona and the Poata family head publicly admit their love.
publication
The film was shown at the Berlinale 2016 and ran out of competition. Only after that, on March 3, 2016, did the cinema release in New Zealand and Australia, the German theatrical release was on September 1, 2016.
On January 12, 2017, the film was released as a German DVD edition by Prokino . German television first broadcast was on June 21, 2019 on Arte .
Reviews
"Now Tamahori is returning to his homeland with a film that merges the pleasantly old-fashioned calm of a classic western with the archaic force of a royal drama and the passionate feelings of a love melodrama."
“So 'Mahana', richly endowed with humor and nostalgic details, becomes a juicy widescreen epic with some western allusions - but unfortunately it becomes increasingly sentimental towards the end. Nevertheless: It's nice how a broad audience is made familiar with the puritanically hard working life of the indigenous sheep-shearer clans - on this side of global New Zealander Peter Jackson and his Tolkienian Middle-earth. "
The film service assessed the work as a "straightforward staged, engagingly told family saga from New Zealand with impressive characters."
In the FAZ , Claudia Reinhard assessed the film as "a somewhat frayed, classic melodrama that could take place anywhere in societies in which personal freedom is suppressed by authoritarian rule structures."
Web links
- Mahana - A Maori saga in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mahana - A Maori saga at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Official website
Individual evidence
- ↑ release document for Mahana - A Maori saga . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Release Info , in: IMDb , accessed on June 21, 2019
- ↑ a b Mahana - A Maori Saga. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Anke Sterneborg: War for the sheep. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . August 31, 2016, accessed April 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Silvia Hallensleben: Secrets and Lies. In: Der Tagesspiegel . September 1, 2016, accessed April 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Claudia Reinhard: Zwei Clans im Clinch , in: FAZ from June 21, 2019, accessed on June 21, 2019