Ngāti (1987)

The first feature film for director Barry Barclay, Ngāti was also the first feature film to be written and directed by Māori filmmakers.

Set in and around a fictional town called Kapua and its predominantly Māori community, the film is set in 1948. Three narrative threads follow Ropata, a young boy dying of leukaemia, Greg, an Australian doctor who has just discovered his Māori heritage, and the town’s struggle to keep the local freezing works open.

_Ngāti _ screened in Critics Week at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival