Natural born star

10 April 2012

Writer and director Niki Caro has discovered an extraordinarily luminous talent in her 12-year-old star, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who makes one of film's most refreshing debuts in years.

As Pai, the surviving sister of Maori twins, she delivers an opening voice-over with a gravitas beyond her years: "There was no gladness when I was born. My twin brother died and took our mother with him."

Her distraught father leaves Pai in the care of her grandparents and seeks a new life in the city. Ten years later, Pai and her grandfather, Chief Koro (Rawiri Paratene), have developed a complex bond.

His love for her cannot unfix his adherence to 1,000 years of tradition, which states that only a male can lead the tribe. He is unable to reconcile his beliefs with Pai's gradual evolution as a natural leader.

The stage is set for a battle of wills and, while Koro begins training the tribe's boys for a leadership contest from which Pai is excluded, she sets about learning, in secret, the history, rituals and rites of leadership, with the help of her wayward uncle (Grant Roa).

The film is based on the novel by Maori writer Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider, named after the mythical ancient chief who was saved from drowning and rode to shore on the back of a whale.

Myth and legend play their parts, but this is a classically constructed 21st century fable of generational and gender conflict in which the old ways compete with progressive ideas, and an individual female voice attempts to be heard in a patriarchal society.

The perils of exploring this ecological/feminist tract are obvious: dogma and sentimentality have clouded many lesser movies constructed around similar conflicts. The great strength of Caro's film, however, is her refusal to allow any potential clichés to trip her up.

Had Hollywood got its hands on the movie, we would doubtless have been treated to Free Willy IV, considering the irresistible connection of its ecological slant and the triumph of youthful rebellion. Whale Rider is a redemptive movie but its passage is constantly surprising.

Even the dog-eared device of voice-over has more purpose than usual. Castle-Hughes's voice is that of a child/adult; she does not so much address the audience as talk to herself, and there is a subtle suspicion that we may be listening to the thoughts of a girl who is no longer alive. This ambiguity creates a subtext of tension that propels the story.

The interior life of the characters contrasts sharply with their mundane existence. I particularly enjoyed the sight of three stout old women sitting around the kitchen table playing cards and smoking cigarettes like overworked chimneys, prompting the precocious Pai to declare: "Maori women have got to stop smoking. They've got to protect their childbearing properties."

Humour is unforced and derived from character and situation. In one scene, Pai, like Arthur in The Sword in the Stone, retrieves Koro's talisman from the seabed - a task that several boys have already failed to complete.

She breaks the surface with the talisman in one hand and a very cross lobster in the other ("for grandfather's tea"), undercutting the portentousness of her action. Whether learning to fight with the traditional Maori stave or to recite the ritual chants, Pai's resemblance to her grandfather becomes increasingly apparent and the light of destiny in her eyes grows ever stronger.

Yet the power struggle between the generations and the sexes is played out with tremendous care and subtlety. There is never a trace of sentimentality, even when Pai recites, with tears streaming down her face, a moving poem composed in honour of her grandfather.

Above all, Caro gives her actors plenty of air to breathe. Incidental encounters between the schoolchildren are as resonant as the dramatic bust-ups between Pai and her grandfather. The rugged beauty of New Zealand's North Island landscapes frame the characters, emphasising their connection with the natural world.

Pai herself is often seen against the blank canvas of the sky. This is entirely appropriate as Castle-Hughes is possessed of a glorious screen face, with her dark, unruly hair framing strong features and piercing eyes locked in concentration or scowling at the weight of her destiny; she often seems to be looking just beyond the present into the future.

Her mesmerising performance carries the conviction not just of a natural born leader but of a natural born star.

Whale Rider
Cert: PG

Natural born star

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