Rain of the Children (Ward, 2008)
A bit of mild panic as I realise that the film I wanted to talk about today is one I already recommended back in May.
Instead, I go to the next open tab and recall this wonderful picture, reviewed on (almost) this day in 2008.
Director Vincent Ward actually reached out to thank me for this review – not as common an occurrence as you might think:
Arguably, the most important film of the year so far opens this week: Rain of the Children restores Vincent Ward’s reputation as a singular cinema artist, after the desperate travails of River Queen, and uses the essential New Zealand story of Rua Kenana and the Tuhoe resistance as vivid background to a universal story of parenthood and loss.
In this film Ward returns to the subject of his first documentary, In Spring One Plants Alone, a film he made as a naïve 21 year old back in 1979. In that film we watched as 80 year old Puhi attempted to care for her last child, the mentally ill Niki. In Rain, Ward tells Puhi’s whole story – from her Urewera childhood, marriage to the prophet Rua’s son, and then the tragedies that bore down upon her until she (and the rest of her community) considered herself cursed.
The full emotional impact took a while to register with me – long enough that the tears didn’t start until half way through the credits. I’d need to see it again before making the call about “masterpiece” or not, but it certainly felt like that, standing numb in the Wellington rain after the Film Festival screening.
Also in that Capital Times column from September 2008: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which left little mark on me, Liam Neeson in Taken (which did better and has now become a meme), weird little coming-of-age film Son of Rambow (which introduced the world to Will Poulter), and Holocaust movies Un Secret and The Counterfeiters.
Where to watch Rain of the Children
Aotearoa: Digital rental from AroVision or NZ Film On Screen
Rest of the world: Not currently available
