Documentary Films - Competition 2008 / Rain of the Children / New Zealand 2007
Set against the compelling reconstruction of the chequered history of the Maori woman Puhi, using a series of inspired acted sequences, well-known New Zealand director Vincent Ward describes the challenges facing the original inhabitants of New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century.
Acclaimed New Zealand director Vincent Ward gave his debut in 1978 with the documentary In Spring One Plants Alone, whose chief protagonist was 80-year-old Puhi from the Maori tribe of Tuhoe, who devoted her life to caring for her adult schizophrenic son. She was convinced that some strange curse was to blame for her luckless fate. Almost thirty years after his documentary debut, Ward decided to find out more about Puhi. With the help of recollections from people who knew her, unique archive footage and a series of inspired acted sequences, he creates a sensitive mosaic of the life of this remarkable woman. Among other things, he discovers that she was mother to 14 children, that she was a famous beauty and that she had been chosen as a wife for the son of the Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana. In a reconstruction of Puhi’s life, Vincent Ward also describes the challenges facing the original inhabitants of New Zealand during the colonisation which occurred in the first half of the 20th century.
101 min / Color, 35 mm
European premiere
Director Vincent Ward
/ Screenplay Vincent Ward
/ Dir. of Photography Leon Narbey, Adam Clark
/ Music John Gibson, Jack Body
/ Editor Chris Plummer
/ Producer Vincent Ward, Marg Slater, Tainui Stephens
/ Production Forward Films
/ Contact New Zealand Film Commission
www: www.nzfilm.co.nz/FilmCatalogue/Films/Rain_of_the_Children.aspx
Vincent Ward (b. 1956, New Zealand), director, screenwriter and actor, began in film when he was 18. His very first feature films were already earning him universal recognition, such as Vigil (1984). The films The Navigator – A Mediaeval Odyssey (1988) or Map of the Human Heart (1993) were the first New Zealand films to be selected for Cannes. He wrote the story for David Fincher’s horror Alien³. Czech audiences are also familiar with his films What Dreams May Come and River Queen. In 1978 he shot and produced the documentary In Spring One Plants Alone, which formed the basis of his latest work Rain of the Children.
New Zealand Film Commission
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New Zealand
Phone: +64 438 276 80
Fax: +64 438 497 19
E-mail: [email protected]
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