The country of New Zealand first submitted a film for consideration in the Best International Film category in 2011, and their most recent submission was in 2018…until now. The Maori movie Muru was officially selected by New Zealand as its Oscar entry after its international premiere in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The movie title, Muru, is a Maori word that has several different meanings depending on its context. The film, telling the story of a New Zealand police sergeant who must choose between his badge and his people, is best defined by the translation of the word as “forgive”. For film star Cliff Curtis (training day), it really represents the meaning of the film.
“It’s one of my favorite, favorite, favorite subjects. That’s all [Tearepa]. He brought the name to the movie as writer and director, and I love it. There are two things about the name. First, there is the name of the film, which is in our mother tongue. We don’t tend to take words out of context and throw them out there. It’s kind of a contemporary thing. Grammatically, it would be incorrect of us to select, throw out a word like that, without context. But you know, it’s a contemporary use of the words. This is my understanding. And then, very often, the words can be translated in several different ways, depending on the context. So I translate the word simply as “forgive”. It can be translated a lot of different ways, depending on the context and what you’re trying to convey, but that’s how I translate it. And then when we were making the film, Tipenhe Ohlson who plays my father in the film. He basically gave us the line that the essence of the film for him boiled down to the single line, “muru o matou hara me matou hara me nei”, which is “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have offended”. It was an anchor for me. Why are we telling this story? What do we hope to offer ourselves and others? Why do we go through the past, the historical events, and reinvent it in the form of fiction film and cinema? The aspiration, I guess, comes down to this one line for me. – Cliff Curtis
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One of the most exceptional things about this film is the extraordinary depth with which it depicts the indigenous people of New Zealand. This is a demographic that isn’t often honored in films globally, but writer/director Tearepa Kahi has done something truly special in what he does.
“Cliff and Tame and I, we have a relationship with each other. And why that representation doesn’t happen very often because sometimes, as it’s represented on the screen, there are facsimiles of other people’s ideas. We weren’t as connected. But what happened recently is the big connection. The one thing that helped us make this film was the relationships we have and the relationships to our language, to our people, to their families, and also to the way we do things. There was never a western question, we never had to incorporate and integrate in doing so. What you see is a Maori film, told by Maori, for Maori, with Tūhoe. Because of that relationship over there Because of that relationship over there, which is why the spirit of Tūhoe seeps into every frame and articulates, cultivates and shapes all of the relationships within the film. – Tearepa Kahi
Rather than telling this story in English, Kahi chose to write the film in the language of New Zealand’s indigenous people, Maori. It was a bold approach because, on paper, it limits the appeal it could have for international audiences. But for Kahi, it was more important that he get this story right, and the result is a film that feels undeniably authentic.
“The challenge is that locally the Tūhoe are the best speakers of Maori. So for New Zealand Maori, and for all of us, there was a lot of training that needed to happen if you weren’t from Tūhoe. We had a lot of people from Tūhoe – Tame Iti, Tipenhe Ohlson, Ria Paki – who are all from the valley, so there are no problems there. It allowed our other actors, like Cliff, to have great support from so many people out there to hit the bull’s eye. If you’re going to shoot a movie in Tūhoe, depicting Tūhoe, with Tūhoe in attendance, to honor Tūhoe, you have to speak like they speak. – Tearepa Kahi
“You know, I had to learn my language growing up, and it’s always a process of learning and developing. And certainly, I lack fluency and don’t speak this dialect of our language, which is an hour and a quarter from my house, because it’s a totally different level of language that they speak there. I had to learn it. – Cliff Curtis
The protagonist that Curtis plays in the film is very complex, with his arc being an internal conflict. Curtis’ character must choose between his allegiance to the police he’s sworn to and the people he knows and loves in his community. What he’s going through is a real dilemma, and Curtis was the perfect actor to pull off this complex role.
“I think the challenge is that it’s really about the idea of masculinity and being caught between two sets of values. On the one hand, he’s chosen a calling for himself: to be a police officer within his community and render service to his community as a policeman.He is a lawyer and takes his badge as his identity.He belongs to the crown being part of the police force.But in this case the crown requires him to present his own people as terrorists. He must make this impossible choice. How does a good man choose his life’s work over his family? Does he choose his government, his Crown and his institution that he believes in even though they are against his own people? How does a good man not err under these circumstances? How to be a good human being? – Cliff Curtis
“Testing loyalty is a big challenge for many Aboriginal people who have taken on responsibilities that the government has imposed, that the community needs. Creating this character not just to have this complexity but to drive this corner was really important and something that wasn’t just done by the writer but that [Cliff and I] made together. – Tearepa Kahi
“And the reward, I credit Tearepa. He could have chosen any character from this valley to be the central character in these circumstances. It could have been the SDG officer, it could have been this young boy, it could have been the other constable, but Tearepa chose this character. I vividly remember when he said, “He’s the person with the biggest arc and the biggest conflict in terms of staying true to himself and trying to hold the line”, and I thought that was very clever. That’s all Tearepa, and the reward has been working with him and seeing everyone’s work to ground and convey the humanity of it, and creating a narrative around positive masculinity and trying to to be an honorable human being. – Cliff Curtis
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Although the film deals with this complex subject and important themes, it remains an exciting action thriller. The audience will be on the edge of their seat in anticipation, which only heightens the emotional power of the script. Viewers will leave the film feeling both amused and provoked by what they have seen.
“Thank you for framing it that way.” – Cliff Curtis
“Yeah, thanks. There are definitely so many pitfalls and so many tropes and beaten paths. Anything I do that takes my time, which I invest my family’s time in since my wife is the producer, and we have four children who grew up speaking Maori, I do it for them. I did it for my whānau [the Māori word for family], as well as for Tami’s whānau and Cliff’s whānau. What tends to happen with us is that a Maori story ends with so much guilt and then it goes into this space of black and white. Everyone walks these simple lines of black is bad, white is good, or vice versa. So we had to juggle between entertainment and depth to portray the valley and these beautiful and tender relationships. It was a very heavy subject, but in something like this there is always an opportunity for art, film and the formation of a deeper understanding. It’s a big roller coaster ride. – Tearepa Kahi
For Kahi and Curtis, Muru was a passion project brought to life, and it shows in the final product. Its combination of a heavy script with entertaining action beats is sure to win over audiences and leave them emotional. Hopefully that translates to some love from the Academy in the Oscars vote.
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