Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 3 July

White Lies (Tuakiri Huna) (Rotberg, 2013)

Witi Ihimaera has proven to be a valu­able pro­vider of source mater­i­al for New Zealand film over the years. There’s Whale Rider, obvi­ously, and Mahana (adap­ted from “Bulibasha”) as well as Katie Wolfe’s Kawa from 2010 (“Nights in the Gardens of Spain”).

Not to be over­looked is this adapt­a­tion of “Medicine Woman” (repub­lished in this edi­tion along with Dana Rotberg’s screen­play and essays). 

I reviewed it online here:

Ex-patriate Mexican dir­ect­or Dana Rotberg has been temp­ted back behind the cam­era by South Pacific Pictures’ John Barnett and by Witi Ihimaera’s novella “Medicine Woman”. The res­ult­ing fea­ture, now known as White Lies, is a slow burn­er of a female-driven drama that packs an emo­tion­al wal­lop. Muso Whirimako Black plays Paraiti, a heal­er in 1920s Te Urewera, scarred in more ways than one by the colo­ni­al forces’ destruc­tion of her vil­lage while she was a child.

Reluctantly enlis­ted to per­form a late abor­tion on the white woman from the big house (Antonia Prebble), she changes her mind and decides to save the baby – a baby whose arrival threatens to rock the care­fully bal­anced rela­tion­ships between Prebble’s Rebecca, her maid (Rachel House) and the soon-to-return hus­band and master.

Refer a friend

I want to be care­ful that I don’t reveal too much – even to those who have read Ihimaera’s ori­gin­al story from which there is some diver­gence. Suffice to say that the long and intense birth scene is one of the most remark­able ever to fea­ture in a New Zealand film – power­ful, mys­tic­al, pain­ful and redempt­ive; absent the usu­al cheap emo­tion­al short­cuts. It’s the pro­found centrepiece of a film where the begin­ning and end don’t quite reach the same level. I’m not sure why but it might have some­thing to do with the multi-translated dia­logue (from Spanish to a kind of stil­ted colo­ni­al English) feel­ing life­less com­pared to the beau­ti­ful images on screen.

That Funerals & Snakes review from 2 July 2013 also con­tained Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (I was not a fan) and Viggo Mortensen play­ing Spanish-speaking twins in Everybody Has a Plan, which would have been a recom­mend­a­tion here if it was avail­able in New Zealand.

Where to watch White Lies (Tuakiri Huna)

Aotearoa: Digital rent­al from AroVision or NZ Film Commission On Demand (or Apple if con­veni­ence trumps keep­ing more of the money in New Zealand).

Australia: Digital rent­al from Apple or Google

Canada, Ireland and UK: Not cur­rently available

USA: Streaming on Prime Video

Further listening

Back when I used to get asked to host screen­ing Q&As, here is me inter­view­ing writer-director Dana Rotberg, com­poser John Psathas, star Antonia Prebble and Witi Ihimaera him­self on the stage at the Light House Cinema in Wellington. This was recor­ded for the fam­ous pod­cast, Cinematica. What a time!