Waru

Nine female Māori filmmakers contributed eight ten minute vignettes, presented as a continuous shot in real time, that unfold around the tangi (funeral) of a small boy (Waru) who died at the hands of his caregiver. The vignettes are all subtly interlinked and each follow one of eight female Māori lead characters during the same moment in time as they come to terms with Waru’s death and try to find a way forward in their community. In Māori, waru means 8. From Charm, who learns to accept that she can’t change the world, to a solo parent learning to listen to her children, to a young woman who hits rock bottom and realises that the only way is up, to a wahine Māori reporter who risks everything to set the story straight, the vignette take us to meet a variety of radically different women each learning to deal with grief in their own way.