Return of the Native?

As Whale Rider premieres in the UK, the Guardian ponders its impact as NZ and Maori cinema, and the cultural factors at play. “[A]longside the celebration in New Zealand’s film industry, there has also been a measure of soul-searching: why, many wonder, has it taken so long to put Maori stories back on international screens after the early 1990s successes of Once Were Warriors …? […] Maori represent one of the most vigorous and assertive indigenous cultures in the English-speaking world, but their impact on film has been relatively small.”