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The Convert
New Zealand / UK / Australia 2023
produced by Robin Scholes, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Andrew Mason, Troy Lum, Maria Logan (executive), Anne Sheehan (executive), David Garrett (executive), David Mepham (executive) for Jump Film and Television, Brouhaha Entertainment, MBK Productions, Mister Smith Entertainment, New Zealand Film Commission
directed by Lee Tamahori
starring Guy Pearce, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Antonio Te Maioha, Jacqueline McKenzie, Lawrence Makoare, Dean O'Gorman, Ariki Salvation-Turner, Duane Evans jr, Whiu Tomika, Jack Barry, Mark Sole, Quinn Sugrue, Mark Mitchinson, Matt Chamberlain, Madeleine McCarthy, Renee Lyons, Aidee Walker, Jared Turner, Eds Eramiha, Richard Falkner, Will Wallace, Matia Mitai, Tania Nolan, Stephen Lovatt, Hinetu Dell, Venetia Clark, Te Kohe Tuhaka
screen story by Michael Bennett, screenplay by Shane Danielsen, Lee Tamahori, inspired by the novel Wulf by Hamish Clayton, music by Matteo Zingales
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Munro (Guy Pearce) has once been a soldier for the crown, but has seen
too much blood in his lifetime, so to atone for all the wrongs he has done
he has switched to be a lay preacher to be sent to New Zealand in 1830.
And on the way to his parish, he saves a woman, Rangimai (Tioreore
Ngatai-Melbourne), from almost certain execution by warlord Akatarewa
(Lawrence Makoare), and thus Rangimai's father Maianui (Antonio Te Maioha)
leaves her and a fellow tribesman in his care for some sort of cultuiral
exchange - and this isn't at all taken well by the members of Munro's new
parish, to the point where Rangimai's companion's killed for getting too
friendly with one of the local girls. Now it's up to Munro, Rangimai and
Charlotte (Jacqueline McKenzie), a woman who has lived with the Maori for
a while, to return the body to Rangimai's tribe. Spending some time with
the tribe, Munro learns a lot about their way of life and beliefs, and
learns to apreciate whom he formerly has viewed as "primitives"
... and then he learns about a pretty much immenant war of them with
Akatarewa's tribe, and he does what he can to prevent slaughter - but then
again he's just a preacher and outsider to all things Maori, so before the
actual battle he already fights a losing fight ...
Now this is a film that's almost impossible not to like: It tells an
epic story about colonialism but isn't only just right in scale, it also
has its heart in the exactly right place, it's action heavy but still
focuses on characters and character arcs, and it makes great use of its
pirrotesque locations without ever resorting to postcard kitsch. And
despite all the slaughter displayed, this one has a feel-good vibe to it,
and at least I have admittedly shed a handful of tears towards the ending.
So in all, well worth a watch, and uplifting beyond just that.
The Convert will be released by Vertigo Releasing
on October 14th 2024
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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