Based on a novel by Maori writer Witi Ihimaera, and with consultation from the Ngati Kanohi tribal people of New Zealand, this coming-of-age adventure combines unlikely elements: whales, martial arts, family dysfunction. In Ngati tradition, every few generations a "whale rider," or clan leader, comes along. As the film opens, an infant and mother die in childbirth; the girl twin survives and is named Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), after a tribal ancestor. Fast-forward 11 years. Patriarch Koro (Rawiri Paratene) desperately wants to train a "whale rider," since his son, a sculptor, has rejected the old ways. His granddaughter Pai, despite showing unusual aptitude, is ineligible because she’s a girl. Koro starts a school for the community’s boys to learn traditional fighting; despite being forbidden to attend, Pai watches surreptitiously and bests all the boys. Yet when she insists she is the one to lead her people, he shuns her.

Set in a contemporary coastal fishing village, the film portrays a child’s intuitive connection to her heritage as a catalyst that revives cultural pride. When whales are beached, only Pai can save them. When Koro loses faith, Pai revives him. It sounds like a recipe for precious melodrama, but writer/director Niki Caro creates a gripping portrait of a people managing to sustain a living mythology. (105 minutes)