Whale Rider
In the ways of the ancients she found a hope for the future.
On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.
- Genre: Drama, Family
- Studio: South Pacific Pictures, Pandora Film, ApolloMedia, New Zealand Film Production Fund, New Zealand Film Commission, NZ on Air, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Keyword: diving, becoming an adult, grandparent grandchild relationship, tradition, loss of loved one, ocean, whale, empowerment, new zealand, maori tradition, chief, modern society, canoe, patriarch, stick fighting, patriarchy, magic realism, woman director, swimming underwater, war dance, traditional dance
- Cast: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis, Grant Roa, Mana Taumaunu
