1991: Te Rua
January 9, 2025
By AHNZ
Te Rua.
A government-funded heist movie where German art imported from New Zealand is the tempting target.
Wi Kuki Kaa’s fine acting performance as a Silent Generation Maori elite clinking glasses in Europe. But his conscience is tortured by his art thief nephew and this guilt-tripping white women.
How much emotional blackmail can a man take before he does what activist youth and bourgeois white women demand? It’s a question much larger than just this movie!
When the petty Maori thief’s hamfisted caper goes wrong an old woman shames a professional thief into doing the job his way. It’s time to stop chasing white tail and prove that Maoris can get further in the modern day using White Collar Crime rather than Blue.
Enter a world where Germans all speak English and the New Zealanders all speak Maori to each other.
For once the artifacts in a foreign museum actually are stolen Maori property because the plot says so.
Discover a film so convoluted and weighed down by its director’s vanity project that only government bailouts make it possible.
Maori Protocol: The Movie.
Starring Crooked Old Lawyer, Disapproving Grandma, Bourgeois White Women #2, and Terrorist Tourist.
Barry Barclay presents: Te Rua (1991)
—
“I really struggled to understand what was happening, unfortunately it was poorly made” –
“A bit of a slog,…stupid that all the Germans spoke in English given the heavy use of Māori,..” – Letterboxd
“A hundred years after the theft from New Zealand of three irreplaceable tribal carvings, two members of the Māori tribe decide it’s time for ancient grievances to be put right. Both men are in Germany, where the carvings are stored in a great Berlin museum. Rewi Marangai (a successful lawyer) has been working on a patent case. Peter Huaka (a perfromance poet) is on a European tour. They first meet when Peter is detained in the museum, where he has been causing turmoil about the stolen carvings. They meet again in New Zealand, where Peter is recruiting helpers for his campaign to bring the carvings back home. Rewi at first refuses to participate, but changes his mind when as old woman of the tribe (Nanny Matai) orders him to lead the group to Germany.” – GECKO THEATRE, Facebook (2024)
“”Te Rua,” a thriller about Maori terrorists in Berlin, by Barry Barclay (“Ngati”) – Press (1989,) Papers Past
“In an unusual move, the commission will fully underwrite five films to be made in New Zealand this year. It is usually a partner with private-sector investors in film projects…Mr Gascoigne would not disclose details of the films’ budgets and how much the funding was worth.” – Film commission bails out struggling industry, Press (1989,) Papers Past
“Barclay spent three years writing the script and received substantial funding from the Berlin Arts Council to make it. ” – New Zealand Sound and Vision, eHive
Like Comment Share
