Whale Rider
The film tells a contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize, the destiny of becoming the chief of her people.
27 July 1968, Rotorua, New Zealand
20 October 1971, Auckland, New Zealand
2 June 1974, Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand
14 October 1951, Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK
1989
24 March 1990, Donnybrook, Western Australia, Australia
August 07, 2008
The movie's story is a sometimes clumsy but gradually involving coming-of-age story about courage, sexism, past customs vs. contemporary social values and a community and family at odds within themselves.
June 03, 2008
The third act -- where all our predictions come true -- has a quiet dignity and, although it moves from A to B as expected, how it gets there is surprisingly mysterious.
June 03, 2005
"Whale Rider" is a mystical, gentle movie that goes beyond the boundaries of the usual coming-of-age film.
December 29, 2010
Excellent to watch and discuss as a family.
July 03, 2003
The most effective and moving female empowerment movie in awhile.
June 11, 2013
both an effective snapshot of the challenges which modernity brings to indigenous cultures, and a neat illustration of the power of myths to adapt.
June 27, 2003
[The story] is so simple that the audience gets ahead of it from the beginning.
November 01, 2007
The filmmaker knows how to seduce an audience without making it feel had. When a movie's this likable, it would take a very tough crowd not to be pleased.
April 29, 2009
This is what a children's film should be like.
January 26, 2006
Niki Caro roots her characters in a landscape equal parts mundane and boundless, incorporates tantalising sea photography and Lisa's Gerrard's ambient soundtrack, and lifts off into a sublime, Elysian ending.
June 27, 2003
The film is closer to a feminist tract. And, like all propaganda, it wants to do all of your thinking for you.
July 22, 2008
Newcomer Castle-Hughes' unaffected, confident turn makes it credible our heroine might retain her determination and self-worth despite serial setbacks.
