Popular reviews

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  Review by Josh Gillam ★★★½

  Eight female Māori directors were given a remit for this drama anthology: tell a story centred around a different woman in the community impacted in various ways by the death of a young boy. Each interconnected segment looks at a community in disarray, slowly falling apart at the seams as each character is haunted by the regrets of what she could and couldn’t do in that situation.

  Waru himself never appears onscreen, but his memory casts a large shadow over each tale, a joint trauma that everyone has to bear in their individual ways. Each filmmaker could only use one continuous shot set at the exact same time of day, and what might might at first seem a restriction becomes…

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  Review by Matthew Murray ★★★ 1

  The biggest pitfall that every anthology film faces is whether it can maintain a consistently high quality. This, unfortunately, is not a pitfall I felt Waru was able to overcome.

  There are three shorts in this film that I found to be genuinely fantastic and that did justice to the difficult subject matter. The remaining five are a mixed bag ranging from interesting but flawed to shallow and poorly executed. Because of the wide range of quality, I find it hard to rate the film particularly high or low; which is how I ended up on three stars.

  Some of the writing is well thought out and provocative (such as in the second-to-last short) and some of the shorts do…

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  Review by Rachel ★★★★½

  Every segment unique & powerful. Important comment on NZ's ignorance of racism & violence. Tough but extremely worthwhile.

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  Review by Rosalind ★★★½

  The selection for New Zealand, feature country for this year’s March Around the World, was fairly straightforward as this has been on my list for a while. Last year I enjoyed a short film Rū made by one of the directors, Awanui Simich-Pene, as part of the Vision Maker Media Indigenous Online Film Festival, and was eager to see more indigenous film.

  Waru is a series of eight stories, each focusing on a different Maori woman in the context of the funeral of a young boy. Beyond the connecting theme the way each segment is shot in long, mobile takes and has washed-out colour (except the final piece which is in black and white) means there’s consistency to the film…

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  Review by eli ★★½

  missed the oscars for this but its ok because i love learning ❤️❤️

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  Review by Michael Gannaway / Hucksta G ★★★

  A bit of a mixed bag. From a technical point of view the shorts are excellent and there are some powerful moments . But the short form is also what hinders it, with things feeling forced and unearned. Surface level comments which never delve deeper (much like my reviews). Also some questionable dialogue and acting. But each of these filmmakers are very promising and I hope have a bright filmmaking career ahead of them, here's to NZ supporting female directors. I note some of the audience laughing at an unintentionally funny drunk character, says quite a bit about NZ drinking culture.

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  Review by Tarryn-tino ★★★½

  I don't really even know what to say about this film tbh. It was far to close to home and just ripped my stomach and heart out over and over again.

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  Review by LiamMaguren ★★★★

  On second watch, the weak stories feel weaker and the strong stories feel stronger. By the numbers, it doesn't change my love for this film.

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  Review by Charlotte Thornton ★★★★★

  watching this in a mathematics classroom with 5 other female writers on a barely functional 2006 tv was the most ethereal experience of my life

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  Review by Holly ★★★★½

  Honestly, balling my eyes out watching this in the middle the film class probably wasn’t my proudest moment

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  Review by _dylarama_ ★★

  March Around the World 30/30 - New Zealand

  I get what this was attempting to do, but it was bogged down in amateurish performances and unnecessary one-takes that didn't serve any narrative purpose. It had its moments - the final two segments were the best of the bunch. Mostly I didn't buy any of it because the filmmaking was so noticeable - you see the camera get detached from a car. The camera has to turn away from things so different props can be moved. It's just so obvious. Time and time again with these one takes I just feel like cutting would have made things so much more powerful. It completely detracted from the immersion into the stories.

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  Review by Barnaby HM ★★★★

  I learned more about Māoritanga in 90 minutes watching WARU than I did in five years of secondary school. Which is as much to do with my willingness to listen to Māori now compared to then as it is about the school curriculum. If the eight parts/eight directors thing puts you off, don't worry -- this is as coherent an artistic statement as has been made on film in NZ for ages. It's a bit on the nose at times, especially the TV studio piece, but how far does nuanced subtext get you when you're struggling to extract yourself from two hundred years of colonial oppression?