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(2003)Directed by Niki Caro101 min · PG-13Drama, Family

“In the ways of the ancients she found a hope for the future.”

Paikea Apirana (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is twelve, and all she wants is to lead her Māori tribe in Whangara, a role her grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) holds for boys alone. Niki Caro, adapting Witi Ihimaera's novel, shoots the village and the sea around it on location, so the old rituals sit in real weather. Paikea keeps showing up anyway, hurt by his refusal and unwilling to love him any less.