Epic films' special guest

Otago Daily Times

20-06-2025

A promotional image for Vincent Ward's Rain of the Children. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Whakatipu residents get a unique opportunity next week to see two iconic films by internationally-acclaimed Kiwi film-maker Vincent Ward — and then engage with him in Q&A sessions.
Auckland-based Ward's Rain of the Children screens next Tuesday at Queenstown's Te Atamira at 6.30pm, then Vigil screens at Arrowtown's Dorothy Browns on Wednesday at 5.45pm.
He's being brought to Queenstown by Milford Galleries, which next Saturday hosts the launch of his unique photography exhibition, 'Palimpsest', featuring photos of human bodies he's painted.
Ward calls Rain of the Children, released in 2008, "sort of my favourite, because it's got such a personal connection to the people in it".
It came 30 years after a documentary, In Spring One Plants Alone, about his experience living in the remote Urewera Ranges with an elderly Maori woman, Puhi, who was caring for her adult schizophrenic son, Niki.
Rain of the Children sees Ward return to the area to explore who Puhi — played by Rena Owen — was.
She'd been chosen, aged 12, by Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana — played by Temuera Morrison — to marry his son.
At 14, with their baby, she escaped from the 1916 police raid on Rua's community, in which he was arrested.
She subsequently had another 13 children — when Ward stayed with her, Niki was her last remaining.
Radio New Zealand called the movie "one of the most moving films to come out of NZ cinema".
Meanwhile, Vigil, released in 1984, was the first film by a New Zealand director to be officially selected 'in competition' at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation.
It follows 11-year-old Toss, who navigates grief, isolation and change in a remote, primeval valley — it's said to be partly autobiographical as Ward grew up on a farm in the Wairarapa.
He says it's "about an imaginative way of seeing the world — these kids that are a little bit isolated live in their own heads and come up with almost an alternative reality to try and understand what's going on".
To celebrate Vigil's 40th anniversary last year, former child actor Fiona Kay, who played the central role — "and was compared by the Los Angeles Times to one of the great silent film stars" — was brought over for a screening at Wellington's Embassy Theatre, and the producer appeared for another.
"And then Queenstown gets me," Ward quips.