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Cousins

Cousins

A moving tribute to the lives of three Māori women in colonial New Zealand

7.0

Movie

New-Zealand
English, Maori
Drama
AINSLEY GARDINER, BRIAR GRACE SMITH
Ana Scotney, Briar Grace Smith, Calvin Tuteao
98 min

What it's about

Connected by blood but separated by circumstances, three cousins spend a lifetime in search of each other.

The take

This excellent new drama is about three indigenous Māori women and their upbringing in colonial New Zealand.

The story is split into two timelines: the present, where two of them are trying to protect their ancestral land from a government project, while the third, Makareta, is wandering aimlessly through a big city. And the past, the story of how they got separated and how Makareta got taken away by a residential-school-like orphanage.

It's a heartbreaking tale, one of how a people can be ravaged by colonialism and decades of discrimination. But being focused on the personal lives of the three women, it’s also heartwarming and deeply humane.

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