Whale Rider (film)
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Niki Caro |
|---|---|
| Distributor | Sony Pictures |
| Honors | |
| There is a legend that Paikea rode on the back of a whale and led his people to New Zealand. Since that time tradition has decreed that the first-born male descendant will become chief of the tribe. Then Pai is born…and she is a girl. She grows up within a close-knit village which retains the tribes traditional spiritual relationship with the sea and their warrior values. Although loved by all, Pai faces rejection from her grandfather, Koro, who is brokenhearted that there is no grandson to carry on the line. | |
There is a legend that Paikea rode on the back of a whale and led his people to New Zealand. Since that time tradition has decreed that the first-born male descendant will become chief of the tribe. Then Pai is born…and she is a girl. She grows up within a close-knit village which retains the tribes traditional spiritual relationship with the sea and their warrior values. Although loved by all, Pai faces rejection from her grandfather, Koro, who is brokenhearted that there is no grandson to carry on the line.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
One of the most charming and critically acclaimed films of 2003, the New Zealand hit Whale Rider effectively combines Maori tribal tradition with the timely “girl power” of a vibrant new millennium. Despite the discouragement of her gruff and disapproving grandfather (Rawiri Paratene), who nearly disowns her because she is female and therefore traditionally disqualified from tribal leadership, 12-year-old Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is convinced that she is a tribal leader, and sets about to prove it. Rather than inflate this story (from a novel by Witi Ihimaera) with artificial sentiment, writer-director Niki Caro develops very real and turbulent family relationships, intimate and yet torn by a collision between stubborn tradition and changing attitudes. The mythic whale rider—the ultimate symbol of Maori connection to nature—is also the harbinger of Pai’s destiny, and the appealing Castle-Hughes gives a luminous, astonishingly powerful performance that won’t leave a dry eye in the house. With its fresh take on a familiar tale, Whale Rider is definitely one from the heart. —Jeff Shannon
Barnes and Noble
Add this uplifting triumph to the shortlist of films that arrive from overseas—in this case, New Zealand—take audiences by surprise, and upend conventional Hollywood wisdom in the process. The recipient of standing ovations and audience awards on the film festival circuit, Whale Rider met with rapturous critical acclaim, generated glowing word-of-mouth buzz, and became the serious filmgoer’s alternative to the summer blockbusters of 2003. Based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera and inspired by an ancient Maori tribal legend, this empowering and unsentimental story stars Keisha Castle Hughes as Pai, a 12-year-old girl who will discover in the course of the story “who she is and who she is meant to be.” Legend has it that her tribe’s founder arrived in her fishing village on the back of a whale. Since then, the firstborn male of every generation has taken on the role of leader. Pai’s twin brother would have been designated as the next chief, but he died shortly after his birth, as did the twins’ mother. Pai’s father, an artist, then abandoned her, after which she was raised by a distant, tradition-bound grandfather who refused to allow her to be “taught in the old ways.” Suddenly, a school of beached whales offers Pai the opportunity to fulfill her destiny. Though the characters’ accents and the wrenching opening scenes may be initially off-putting, this is a whale of a tale that refreshingly finds girl power in the qualities of courage, intelligence, leadership, and respect for one’s culture. Donald Liebenson
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