Whale rider

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Movie
German title Whale rider
Original title Whale rider
Country of production New Zealand , Germany
original language English , Māori
Publishing year 2002
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
JMK 0
Rod
Director Niki Caro
script Niki Caro
production John Barnett ,
Frank Huebner ,
Tim Sanders
music Lisa Gerrard
camera Leon Narbey
cut David Coulson
occupation

Whale Rider is a German - New Zealand film directed by Niki Caro from 2002 . It is about a twelve year old girl who emancipates herself within the Māori traditions. The film is based on a book by Witi Ihimaera .

action

According to a Māori legend, the ancestor Paikea, riding a whale, came to the New Zealand coast thousands of years ago and founded the village of Whangara. Since then, the head of the tribe bears the name Paikea and passes it on to the firstborn of the male descendants.

Now a new male descendant is to be born in a Maori family. But the birth goes wrong: the mother has twins, but the mother and the male twin die in the process. Only the female twin survives. However, the father Porourangi names his daughter Paikea, much to the annoyance of the grandfather and village chief Koro, who is aware that this violates Maori tradition, as the title may only be worn by the first-born male descendant.

The girl grows up with her grandparents Koro and Flowers and is called Pai. “Koro” is the Māori name for an elderly man to whom one has to show respect. Despite the apparently good relationship between Pai and Koro, Koro cannot accept her as the future head of her tribe because she is not a boy. The grandparents encourage their son to remarry and have a male descendant. At first he doesn't seem interested, but it happens by chance that he has a relationship with a woman in Germany and she is now pregnant. The woman does not want to move to New Zealand because she wants to keep her job and her family in Germany. The grandparents seem desperate, and the grandfather Koro begins to live out his frustration and disappointment in Pai more and more openly. She patiently endures the harsh treatment, since she unconsciously understands that the grandfather's frustration is not her personal, but the apparently missing “real” Paikea, the male descendant.

By teaching and training the youngsters in the village in ancient Māori customs, the grandfather Koro hopes to find a suitable and courageous successor. Pai also wants to train, but since she is a girl, her grandfather Koro sends her away. Soon after, however, she finds out that her father's brother was a very good Maori fighter at a young age and even won prizes. With his help, the twelve-year-old Pai starts an independent training and thus confronts her grandfather and the old tradition.

The village boys, who are trained to fight, are given the task by the village elder Koro to dive for a special whale tooth to show that one of them is a real brave fighter and a paikea, but none of the boys can successfully complete the task. Koro is bitterly disappointed and withdraws from life depressed. Later Pai asks her uncle to show her the place in the sea with the whale tooth. Pai succeeds, she brings the whale tooth to the surface. It becomes clear to the uncle, the grandmother and all the spectators that Pai really deserves the title Paikea, even if she is a girl. In the end she rides a stranded whale back into the sea as "Kahutia Te Rangi" (German: "Kahutia, the heavenly"). Paikea almost dies in the process. As a result, and with the discovery of the whale tooth, Paikea finally achieved acceptance by her grandfather Koro.

background

The film paints a portrait of the turmoil between Māori traditions and modern New Zealand, to which many Māori, especially older ones, are helpless. Koro, the older man, the grandfather, is obsessively, almost desperately, clinging to the old customs and traditions. As a result, he isolates himself in his Māori community and feels misunderstood, where a Koro is by no means contradicted (in the old traditions this was severely punished). On the other hand, his son has turned to the modern world: he lives as an artist in Germany and has even left his daughter behind in New Zealand for this purpose, which is unimaginable in the traditional world of the Māori, in which the family is practically above everything.

Reviews

Panorama of Whangara , location of "Whale Rider"

A wonderful story, captured in dreamlike pictures, which convincingly depicts both the vitality of traditions and legends as well as the increasingly formative reality of life as well as the emancipatory efforts of the upcoming Māori generations.
(Source: film service)

Picturesque and vividly photographed, Whale Rider is a cultural expedition, family and emancipation drama ... Keisha Castle-Hughes is a discovery like the young Winona Ryder .
(Source: kino.de)

Whale Rider is particularly convincing with its fairytale-like, mystical charm, without drifting into folklore kitsch. His message is: The modern world would lose its soul if it did not make sure of the traditions.
(Source: Filmecho)

Audio description

For television broadcasts, Arte created an audio film version in 2007 with Jan Gebauer as the narrator.

In 2008 this image description was nominated for the German Audio Film Award.

Awards

In addition to an Oscar nomination in the Best Female Actress category for Keisha Castle-Hughes , the film won awards at the Toronto International Film Festival , the Sundance Film Festival ( audience award ) and the International Film Festival Rotterdam .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for whale riders . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ^ Whale Rider in the Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V.
  3. ↑ 6th GERMAN AUDIO FILM AWARD 2008