Ngāti

Barry Barclay’s Ngāti is the first feature film written and directed by a Maori artist. The film depicts a post-colonial New Zealand of the 1940s, where the peaceful coexistence among the white and the Maori populations is still a distanced illusion. A young Australian doctor arrives in a coastal village, seemingly searching for his origins. As the locals welcome him with open arms, he observes how they stick together like one fist, at a time when the local factory is one step before closure and the area one step before withering. Initially assured of all the things he has to teach to the Maoris, the doctor will soon realize that he is the one who has much to learn by the traditions, the mentality and the community feel of the indegenous people. This simple and captivating story about a man on the search for his identity, is a landmark in the history of indigenous cinema.