A Samoan movie will have its world premiere at next month's Berlin Film Festival.
Ilisa (played by Frankie Adams) in One Thousand Ropes. Photo: Supplied/ Bright Sunday
The film, One Thousand Ropes, is written and directed by Samoan film maker Tusi Tamasese, who also directed the critically acclaimed film The Orator.
One Thousand Ropes will be screened along with 50 films from 43 other countries.
Maea (played by Uelese Petaia) in One Thousand Ropes. Photo: Supplied/ Bright Sunday
The movie was filmed in Wellington and features Samoan actors Uelese Petaia, Frankie Adams, Vaele Sima Urale, Ene Petaia, Beulah Koale and Anapela Polata'ivao.
One Thousand Ropes is a story of a father reconnecting with his youngest daughter and together putting to rest the ghosts that haunt them.
She arrives vulnerable: badly beaten and heavily pregnant. He struggles with the inner temptation and the encouragement from the men in his life, to take revenge in the way he knows best on one hand and on the other, to build the new family and companionship so desperately missing from his life.
One Thousand Ropes is described as "a deeply moving film about connections, redemption and new beginnings".
The Berlin Film Festival said Mr Tamasese "created mythic images full of tension and concentration to relate the story of Maea, a baker and male midwife confronting inner demons".
One Thousand Ropes will be released in cinemas in New Zealand and Samoa on 23 March.
