A road movie like no other: Kath Akuhata-Brown's Kōkā
In the new feature film
Kōkā
an elder Māori woman, under the celestial guidance of Matariki, makes a long journey home in a car that's seen better days.
She's joined by a charismatic, troubled and troubling young woman. These are two remarkable performances by actors Hinetu Dell and Darneen Christian.
For
Kōkā
's director, Kath Akuhata-Brown of Ngāti Porou, this has also been a long journey - to make a film on her own terms.
Akuhata-Brown's long career in journalism, television and film has blazed a trail for Māori storytelling. As well as writing, producing and directing she's worked in development at the New Zealand Film Commission, Te Māngai Pāho and on the board of Script to Screen.
Kōkā
, she explains, is a road trip movie but it is of a very Māori, surreal kind - navigating between this world and the next. A kind of
Goodbye Pork Bye
inverted, reckons
Culture 101
's Mark Amery - where the protagonists are wāhine Māori, the journey south to north, and where power is manifested through kindness and compassion to enable change.
He is joined on
Culture 101
by Kath Akuhata-Brown
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