Waru

Year: 2017

Genre: Feature - Art House & International

Classification: M

Writer: Briar Grace-Smith, Casey Kaa, Ainsley Gardiner, Katie Wolfe, Renae Maihi, Chelsea Cohen, Paula Jones, Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu (writer of Titty & Bash).

Producer: Kerry Warkia & Kiel McNaughton

Director: Briar Grace-Smith, Casey Kaa, Ainsley Gardiner, Katie Wolfe, Renae Maihi, Chelsea Cohen, Paula Jones, Awanui Simich-Pene.

Eight female Māori directors have each contributed a ten minute vignette, presented as a continuous shot in real time, that unfolds around the tangi (funeral) of a small boy (Waru) who died at the hands of his caregiver. The vignettes are all subtly interlinked and each follow one of eight female Māori lead characters during the same moment in time as they come to terms with Waru's death and try to find a way forward in their community. In Māori, waru means 8.