The Convert

LEE TAMAHORI
New Zealand, Australia, 2023
120 minutes, Color

As with his acclaimed film Once Were Warriors, director Lee Tamahori returns to the subject of the Maori people but sets this story in 1830 as English colonists are arriving in New Zealand. Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) is a pastor seeking redemption from his previous life as a soldier. As soon as he gets off the boat, both his skills are tested by the brutal conflicts among rival Maori tribes—who believe that "only blood redeems blood"—as well as the inherent cruelties of the white settlers. All sides threaten what might seem like a paradise. "Paradise is a popular word," says a ship captain. "Always a misleading one." As The Convert shows, the coming of the British set the stage for the plight of the characters in Once Were Warriors 165 years later. —Dave Nuttycombe

In Te Reo Maori and English with English subtitles