MOVIE · 1994
Once Were Warriors
CrimeDrama102 min
In South Auckland, an urban Māori whānau is pushed toward collapse as violence, alcohol, and poverty take hold inside the Heke family home. Rena Owen is the mother at its center, trying to protect her children and keep the family intact, while Temuera Morrison’s Jake dominates the household with swagger, anger, and abuse. Against a contemporary New Zealand backdrop, the film follows the pressures closing in on one family — gambling, drugs, and the aftershocks of cultural dislocation — as a woman faces what it will take to save herself and her children from the man she once loved.
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