NEW ZEALAND: Polynesian Comedy Film Breaks New Ground
By Peter Rees/Pacific Magazine
After setting the New Zealand music scene alight in recent years, Pacific Island entertainers now have their sights on the local film industry with a new movie featuring an all star Polynesian cast opening across the country in 46 locations today.
Sione's Wedding has already received rave reviews from critics following premieres held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
The film made its international premiere yesterday in Samoa.
It was a poignant moment for many of the cast who are Samoans, when they flew to Samoa to attend the first screening at the Magik Cinema in downtown Apia. It was a decision made by the film makers to take the film to Samoa in acknowledgement of the Polynesian themes that are central to the film.
Among those who travelled to Samoa for the premier was the film's co-writer Oscar Kightley, a Samoan-born actor, writer, sports presenter, television and radio host and probably one of the most recognisable faces on New Zealand television. In 1998, Kightley won New Zealand's Bruce Mason Award for best New Playwright.
Sione's Wedding plotline revolves around a group of 30-something Samoan men trying to change their ways and grow up in an effort to attend the wedding of one of their friends. Though listed as a comedy, the film relates personal experiences of first and second generation Pacific Islanders.
The film has a many well known faces to the Pacific Island community both in New Zealand and in the islands. Among the cast are Music television channel C4 presenter and Niu FM DJ, Teuila Blakely, former Miss South Pacific, Mary Jane McKibbin-Schwenke, Shortland Street's Pua Magasiva, former Tagata Pasifika presenter Shimpal Lelisi and Naked Samoan actors David Fane and Robbie Magasiva.
Sione's Wedding took only six weeks to shoot, with the majority of the scenes filmed in the central Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn where many of the cast grew up. Hollywood actor and former wrestling star of Samoan descent, Duane "The Rock" Johnson, also spent his formative years there before moving back to the US.
Major funding for Sione's Wedding came from the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air and Village Sky City Cinemas.
Many of New Zealand's top Pacific Island music acts have collaborated on the soundtrack of the movie, among them Nesian Mystik, Savage, Dei Hamo and the Deceptikonz.
The movie is produced by veteran John Barnett, who has Whale Rider on his list of credits.
