Vincent Ward
By Ruth Hessey
One of New Zealand's most successful exports, Vincent Ward has directed international stars (Robin Williams, Samantha Morton, Keifer Sutherland), and big budget epics (River Queen, Map of the Human Heart). He wrote Aliens3 and executive produced The Last Samurai.
But he's better known on the arthouse circuit for the exquisitely eerie, odd-ball early work; films like Vigil, The Navigator, and the compelling short film In Spring One Plants Alone, completed in 1981.
Twenty-five years later Ward returned to the subjects of In Spring, and realised "there was an entirely different more dramatic film to be made."
Puhi, the wizened 80 year old crone, living alone with her schizophrenic son, had once been a beautiful Maori princess, caught up in the tectonic cultural shifts set off by colonialisation.
"I'm fascinated by what we learn from the full arc of a life," Ward explains. "Everyone experiences body blows; all the old fairy stories are full of darkness; but what I admire about Puhi's story is her extraordinary fortitude."
Rain Of Children is different to the conventional film or documentary, created by listening to the stories of Puhi's children and grandchildren, and piecing together interviews and archives. Powerful re-enactments usually include her relatives, reliving scenes from her life - married at 12, an adult embroiled in a love triangle at 15, Puhi was "cursed" and lost a succession of children and two husbands along the way.
"Because Maori people don't talk about these things to pakeha, this is the first time anyone has explored the way a curse works, from a woman's point of view," says Ward.
How did he do it? "I really love the people. And they recognised that."