Cousins: a special opening night screening + Q&A: CANCELLED

- This event has been cancelled -

Kia ora kotou!
Don't miss this special opening night event presented by Ngā Aho Whakaari and Women In Film & Television NZ. Briar Grace Smith and Ainsley Gardiner co-direct this eagerly anticipated film which is adapted from the 1992 Patricia Grace novel. The stellar cast includes Ana Scotney, Rachel House, Tanea Heke and Briar Grace Smith.

A Q&A with Briar and Ainsley will follow the screening.

Set over six decades, this powerful drama tells the stories of three cousins separated by circumstances, who spend a lifetime in search of each other.

Orphaned Mata (Heke) believes she has no whānau and lives out her lonely childhood in fear and bewilderment. Back home on the land, educated Makareta (Grace Smith) flees an arranged marriage to study law and begin the search for her missing cousin. She leaves behind cheeky yet dutiful Missy (House) who takes on her role of kaitiaki (guardian) of the land. As the years pass, loss of the family land seems imminent and the women’s promise to bring their stolen cousin home seems more unlikely than ever, until a chance encounter changes everything

Cousins is produced by Libby Hakaraia (director of the Māoriland Film Festival), Georgina Conder (The Breaker Upperers) and Ainsley Gardiner (The Breaker Upperers, Boy), and written by Briar Grace Smith, a writer and a director of the portmanteau film Waru, and the writer of The Strength Of Water.