Once Were Warriors

Stop me if you've heard this one. Once proud native peoples, now seemingly trapped in lives of poverty, violence and alcohol. Drunken, abusive dad. Teen-age kids spiralling into crime or despair. The main change-up here being that its New Zealand's Maori. Of course with well traveled ground like this its not so much the story, but how you tell it. And thats something director Lee Tamahori and the cast do quite well, adapting over the story of Beth (Rena Owen) and Jake Heke (Temuera Morrison) and their family...