Aotearoa/New Zealand, 2021, 57 min. / Documentary
Director: Nina Nawalowalo (Fijian)
Screenwriter: Fa´amoana John Luafutu (Samoan), Tom McCrory
Language: English
A touching documentary of Fa’amoana John Luafutu who moved from Samoa to New Zealand as a child, only to be taken from his family and made a state ward. Fa’amoana tells about his journey, coloured by violence, through state care, gang membership and prison — and examines the transgenerational influence of these experiences on his children. The dramatised parts, beautiful air and underwater images as well as Fa’amoana’s bare memories of and visits to the scenes grow into a powerful testimony of the meaning of the work on truth and reconciliation. Fa’amoana has become “the voice of the voiceless” for the thousands of children who have never got this far.
