The award for Best Film at the New Zealand Screen Awards went to a small Māori film company, whose historical account of the battle of Ōrākau took the prize in a pool of audience favourites. The movie, Ka Whawhai Tonu, set inside a fighting pa, tells the story of the last stand in the Waikato war told in te reo Māori, using multiple dialects to represent the different iwi and hapu who came to fight the Crown.
Ka Whawhai Tonu producer Piripi Curtis speaks with Mihi Forbes.
Temuera Morrison in Ka Whawhai Tonu. Photo: Trigger Marketing / supplied
