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Armagan Ballantyne’s The Strength of Water from the Land of the Strangulated Vowel is a little domestic gem. Set in the isolated Maori community of Hokianga in the far north, there is something hauntingly atmospheric about the scruffy landscape dotted with abandoned rusty car wrecks, with pigs and chickens roaming around the mud flats. You get the feeling that this is a community where everyone knows everyone and there is great respect for the local traditions.
We become immersed in the belly of this community as the camera follows ten-year old twins Kimi and Melody’s routine. They are close companions, sharing the responsibility of caring for their favourite animal and, above all, each other. Life proceeds in a pretty happy manner until a stranger, Tai, comes into town. In the most excruciating, claustrophobic scene you are likely to see on screen, Melody suffocates in an old freezer. Tai is also trapped with her when the freezer lid locks as he attempts to escape a ferocious dog and he is ultimately held responsible for her death.
Kimi refuses to accept his sister’s passing and carries on as if she was still with him, hauling her around on his cart and keeping her in the loop. She becomes his ‘imaginary friend’. Melody can’t be seen by anyone else and she repeatedly tells Kimi that she can’t feel or taste, nor emotionally ‘be’ as she was before. Kimi must relinquish the person he loves the most and find the strength to move on.
The tangi (funeral) is the point where Kimi confronts his loss and these scenes are particularly emotional and moving. It is also the most challenging cultural moment in the film. The filmmakers had to get permission to film a fictional tangi and this involved using photographs for the dead people’s wall in the wharenui (where the ceremony took place). According to local custom, the use of living people’s images on the walls would be an omen of bad luck. The producers were overwhelmed by the cast and crew who brought in photos as a symbolic gesture confirming that they felt the film was worthy of their deceased loved ones.
The performances are excellent. The twins are both inexperienced actors who manage to bring a sense of real compassion to their characters. The harsh landscape and the gentle, sensitive nature of the story remind us that the smallest and most fragile things in life can become the strongest issues we have to deal with. It provides a sense of hope and inspiration for its audience and for those of us not familiar with Maori culture, it is, according to Ballantyne, ‘a window into another world’.
// SALT
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks