Experience the untold story of the Maori people’s unimaginable courage and resilience in “Ka Whawhai Tonu,” a new historical adventure film set in New Zealand in 1864.
Directed by Kiwi filmmaker Mike Jonathan and starring Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis, and Jason Flemyng, the film tells the story of a pivotal battle in the country’s first land wars from the indigenous Maori point of view. The film’s full title is “Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End: the historical story of the battle of O-Rākau as told for the first time from the point of view of the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, in their own language Te Reo Māori.”
The film is an action-adventure, coming-of-age story, set in the Māori – Colonial wars of the 1860s. It follows the story of a half-caste, traumatized boy-soldier, Haki, 15, who is captured by Māori resistance forces preparing a last desperate stand against the might of the British Imperial Army. The film is a testament to the indigenous people of New Zealand and their language, Te Reo Māori, and is set to be released in 2024, 160 years after indigenous chief Rewi Maniapoto stood on the ramparts and shouted “E hoa, ka whawhai tonu mātou, Āke! Āke! Āke!” (“Friend, we will fight on forever, forever and forever!”), words that continue to lead calls for Māori sovereignty today.
