MOVIE · 2003

Whale Rider

DramaFamily101 min

On the east coast of New Zealand, 11-year-old Pai believes she is meant to lead her Māori community, even as tradition reserves that role for boys. Keisha Castle-Hughes is Pai, a child raised on the story of the ancestor Paikea, who rode a whale to shore; Rawiri Paratene’s Koro, her grandfather, is determined to train a male successor instead. As Pai tries to prove herself worthy, family love and rejection are bound up with ceremonial training, the pull of the ocean, and a lineage shaped by custom, gender, and the expectations of her people.