News location:

Canberra Today 24°/27° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: The Orator (PG) ? ? ? ½

THIS first Samoan feature film begins with Saili harvesting mature taro growing around the gravestones of his parents.

Then he lops new plantings nearby. How can this be? Can a farmer afford to destroy plants from which he earns his livelihood? Saili lives in the house of Vaaiga and her teenaged daughter Laita. The local women intensely dislike Vaaiga ever since she came to the community 17 years earlier. 

An elder suggests to Saili that he deliver an oration to the community to persuade them to accept Vaaiga as one of them. Saili is reluctant. For he is not only a cripple, he is a dwarf.  Fiaula Sanote’s courageous performance makes a significant impact.
“The Orator” tells a gentle, unhurried story about land title, community issues and love. Explanation of its underlying social and cultural factors comes slowly. The village cleaves to both Christianity and traditional custom (except eating people).

After the film I spoke with the pastor at Canberra’s Samoan church, who assured me that it accurately reflects Samoan village life. I’d like to think that it might gather a respectable audience in Canberra, especially beyond the Samoan community. It’s not ethnographic cinema. It doesn’t use mainstream cinematic values to tell its quite moving story. The cinematic values that it does present are uncompromising and delightful. Writer/director Tusi Tanasese eventually gives satisfactory explanations for all the dramatic questions his compassionate film raises.At Greater Union and Limelight

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews