Waru

Film (Trailer) – 2017

Mature

For this 2017 feature film, eight Māori women each directed a 10 minute segment of events circling around the tangi of a boy named Waru. Each director had a day and a single shot to capture their take on the context behind a tragedy. After its debut at the 2017 NZ International Film Festival, Waru won a rush of social media attention and acclaim, and screened at the Toronto and ImagineNATIVE festivals. The Hollywood Reporter praised it for bringing "a sense of dramatic, urgent realism to a story that plays out like a suspenseful mystery". Waru was produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton.

In New Zealand we're told it's a Māori problem, and when a child is killed the mother is always vilified. We felt it was time to hear from Māori women about this issue.
– Producer Kerry Warkia on Waru, in an interview with Variety, 8 September 2017