The quality of Maori Merchant of Venice is not strained

Don C. Selwyn’s The Maori Merchant of Venice won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 22nd Annual Hawai’i International Film Festival’s Golden Maile Awards. The Maori film adaptation of Shakespeare’s revenge drama “brings an exotic look, a musically rich soundtrack and a unique cultural mix to Shakespearean tradition.” Based on Dr Pei Te Hurinui Jones’ 1945 translation of the play into formal Maori, the production aims to “keep the poetic side of the language active”, says Selwyn, an active promoter of Maori language preservation.