©2003 Ned Bobkoff
 

For more commentary and articles by Ned Bobkoff, check the Archives.

Ned Bobkoff is a writer, director and teacher.
He has worked with performers in a variety of cultural settings
throughout the United States and abroad.

Novelist Witi Ihimaera, while living in an apartment overlooking the Hudson river in New York city, heard "helicopters whirling and the ships in the river using all their sirens". A whale was spotted in the Hudson river and it made him think of his home town, Whangara, on the northeast coast of New Zealand. 

The Whangara people believe that a millennium ago their ancestor Paikea's canoe capsized off shore. When he was rescued by a whale and rode on its back to the shore safely, a vital connection between the Whangara people and the huge mammals was established.

What happens to the whales happens to the Whangara people. 

Director Nike Caro enlisted the Whangara as advisors and performers for the film based on the novel – and it shows. Exceptional performances ground the film. Especially the performance of 14 year old Keisha Castle-Hughes, who portrays Pai - a young girl who refuses to accept her place in the patriarchal Whangara society.

When his wife and first-born son die in childbirth, Pai's distraught father (Cliff Curtis) abandons the village. Pai, the twin sister who survived the birth, is left in the hands of her grandfather, Koro (Rawire Paratene), and her grandmother, Nancy Flowers (Vicki Haughton). Koro is the chief of the village and the keeper of the sacred alliance with the whales. Nancy Flowers is the keeper of her husband's sanity and Pai's all seeing eye.    

Koro falls into despair. Now that his son has abandoned the village and his grandson was born dead, what first-born male in the village will carry on the tradition of being a messenger for the whales? Who is capable of keeping the age-old alliance alive? 

Koro takes action.  

Gathering the first-born sons in the village together, he teaches them the old ways; the ways of courage, strength and endurance. Hoping to discover among the boys a potential chief for the Whangara and the messenger for the whales. 

Koro trains the candidates in the fierce nomenclature of the Whagara martial arts. But the grunts, combative gestures, and wildly comic grimaces of the training reveal that the boys are simply not up for the job. 

He then puts them through the ultimate test. Throwing a sacred whale's tooth into the sea, he has the boys dive for it. None of them is capable of breaking out of the sea with the prized possession. 

Pai has been sitting on the beach meditating; listening to the distant, haunted cries of the whales; entranced, focused, touched to the core. She goes out in a canoe with her grandmother and uncle to the spot where Koro tossed the whale tooth into the sea. She dives in, retrieves it, and rises from the sea with a big grin – a gift for her grandfather. 

Although Koro loves his grand daughter (he pedals around with the village with her on a bicycle), he is stickler for the rules. When he discovers that Pai has violated the rules by secretly training with the boys and successfully beating them at their own game, he angrily banishes her from his sight. Not for a second does he consider Pai for the job of becoming the messenger for the whales. 

Koro's dilemma and Pai's destiny are linked. 

Whales are discovered on the shore beached. The devastated community pitches in to save them. In spite of their intense efforts to keep the whales alive, the whales begin to die one by one. Despair in the community hits hard – especially for Koro. The old man believes that he may have done something wrong to bring this tragedy on.

Pai approaches the lead whale dying on the beach. Nuzzling against the encrusted barnacles on its skin, she tunes into the labored breathing of the giant mammal as the tide rolls in. 

Gradually the whale recovers and is lifted back into the sea. Pai rides her companion into the sea like her ancestor. Except now she has rescued the whale rather than the other way around. She has also rescued the community – a terrific cinematic coup. And when grandmother Flowers shows the whales tooth to Koro the old man succumbs to the truth.

Whale Rider is an extraordinary coming of age story; a quietly engaging film of earned destiny and courage against odds. A blending of reality and mystery that clearly does credit to the source of its inspiration

Next time you're down in subway, riding in the belly of the whale, pay attention to how the conductor responds to the signals. Since all living creatures emerged from the sea – including birds – take action. Step out of the subway, pass out of the blow hole, accept your evolutionary destiny, get rid of your superimposed life style and reverse the tide.

You have nothing to lose but your chains.  

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