Te Rua

Variously praised as a major step forward in indigenous cinema, attacked for overambition, and little screened, Te Rua marked Barry Barclay’s impassioned follow-up to his acclaimed debut feature Ngāti. This story of stolen Māori carvings in a Berlin museum sees Barclay plunging into issues of control of indigenous culture which he would return to in book Mana Tuturu. A feisty activist (Peter Kaa) and an older lawyer (screen taonga Wi Kuki Kaa) favour different approaches to getting the carvings back home. Barclay and his longtime producer John O’Shea had their own differences over Te Rua’s final cut.

Te Rua was never made for Pākēha. Open to them, intelligible to them, but from within me, it's for Māori.

– Barry Barclay, on Te Rua, in 1993 documentary Breaking Barriers

Key Cast & Crew

Wi Kuki Kaa

As: Rewi

Waka Attewell

Cinematographer - NZ

Peter Kaa

As: Peter Huaka

Rory O'Shea

Cinematography - Berlin

John O'Shea

Producer

Barry Barclay

Director, Writer