Te Rua is an awesomely impressive achievement. And
the most important thing about it may just be its insistence that it
tells its story on its own terms. We would all do well to listen. –
Peter Calder, NZ Herald
Debate over the repatriation of plundered indigenous art is not new,
but it may be only just getting underway. Te Rua is in no doubt whatsoever
about where its Maori tribal carvings, stored in the basement of a Berlin
museum, truly belong. That certainty is expressed in bold, eloquent
strokes – as the film opens, the tiny seaside community of Uritoto,
from which the carvings have long been wrested, is photographed (beautifully,
by Warwick Attewell) in an atmosphere of overcast agitation. It rains
incessantly; the sea heaves mournfully about the rocks. Two sons of
the tribe have coincided in Berlin and it’s as if their closeness
to the carvings has opened old wounds on this side of the world. Exactly
how carvings and equanimity will be restored is not so simple.
Barclay’s constantly surprising thriller plot imagines what radical
action might be appropriate. He regales us with a whole range of the
attitudes which render this subject contentious and make corrective
action almost farcically awkward. The events in Berlin are complicated
by bureaucracy, do-gooders, professional activists, and tactical differences
between the militant young and their canny elders.
Obversely, Te Rua is about the white patronage of Maori interests. There’s
invigorating insolence in the parallels Barclay draws between the white
knights who assist the Maori cause and the white museum management who
oppose it. Pakeha crave Maori-ness in this film in subtly different
ways. The most enlightened know this about themselves, none more so
than the outrageous Professor Biederstedt, German custodian of the carvings.
Te Rua overflows with ideas, argument and provocation and its contours
are certainly more jagged than those of Barclay’s earlier Ngati.
In a film as richly populated as this, it’s inappropriate to isolate
individual performers to praise. Suffice to say, the Maori players invest
Te Rua with resounding pride and passion.
– Bill Gosden, 23rd Auckland International Film Festival
Barry Barclay links
Eye
for hidden worlds in places overlooked, Peter Calder, NZ Herald
Present
tense, future perfect, Graham Reid, NZ Herald
Arts Foundation
of New Zealand, Barry Barclay Laureate 2004
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