Waru

Waru comprises eight short, ten-minute stories of eight Maori women. Each of them was filmed by a different director in one day and in one shot. All of them are connected to a story inspired by statistics on the high mortality rate of Maori children. Specifically, the film focuses on how the death and funeral of an eight-year-old boy (named Waru) affected the life of the community. Taken together, the stories comprise layered mosaics that take into consideration the view “from the inside” and “from the outside”, while capturing the socio-cultural background of the boy’s tragic death and the life of the Maori. The whole film is shot using only natural lighting, which lends an element of rawness and immediacy to the stories. Thanks to the uniform visual aspect of the individual segments, the result gives the impression of being relatively homogeneous, though the individual segments have different dynamics. The chosen format adds largely realistic, though at times needlessly intensified, drama to the urgency and facilitates our delving into the world of the characters, whom, however, we cannot get to know and understand more thoroughly due to the brief runtime. Furthermore, not all of the actors master their demanding roles, as becomes apparent particularly during the numerous emotionally tense moments. The courage to speak openly about the painful topic thus arouses more admiration than does its incomplete treatment. 65% (2018-10-17)