.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Whale Rider is one of those films that can easily get lost amongst the heavier movie titles. In a summer of Hulks and Terminators, one might have to search the multiplex for Whale Rider - but believe me, the search is worth the effort.

Whale Rider is a film about the coming of age of a 12 year old New Zealand girl and her struggle for acceptance of her father, grandfather and tribe which just happens to be looking for a new leader.

The movie opens with the birth of Pai (played wonderfully by Keisha Castle-Hughes) and the resulting death of her mother and twin brother. As a result of the tragedy, her father leaves the family and moves to Europe and Pai is left in the care of her grandparents - Koro and Nanny played by Rawiri Paratene and Vicky Haughton respectively.

The film then cuts ahead 12 years and the relationship between Pai and her grandfather seems both loving yet awkwardly strained. Koro is a man strong in tradition and begins a search for the next true leader of the tribe and its people. Pai wants to be accepted by her grandfather and tries to learn the ways of a leader. Koro believes strongly that the position is that of a male and shuns his granddaughter's attempts.

As the movie progresses, Koro becomes more and more strict about not involving Pai in his classes and Pai must then learn the trades of a leader through both observation and in secret fighting lessons with her uncle.

The above may seem very formulaic with shades of The Karate Kid and Billy Elliot , but it is in the films second half that it separates itself from its genre. During a classroom recital where Pai is giving an ode to her grandfather, Koro walks along the beach and encounters countless whales that have run ashore. Soon townspeople swarm to the beach to help keep the whales alive and attempt to bring them back to sea.

An unforgettable scene then takes place where Pai gets atop one of the beached whales guides the beast like an obedient horse back to the open sea. Koro says little, but looks in disbelief and soon horror as his little girl guiding the whales back to the sea disappears into the big blue waters.

But fear not, we soon learn that Pai has been found alive and is in hospital where she later regains her strength and takes command as the true leader of the tribe.

Whale Rider is directed by Niki Caro, a fellow New Zealander that shoots the film like a veteran. The movie has the feel of an independent film, but with the breathtaking scenery of a film with a budget big enough to create its own locations.

But as much as the New Zealand landscape takes your breath, it is the acting that takes your notice. Keisha Castle-Hughes puts on a performance as a young girl as powerful as Anna Paquin's Academy Award performance in The Piano . She commands a presence with every scene and uses her entire body to relay feelings of hurt, pain and anguish. Her emotional scene in which she recites a poem to her absent grandfather is probably the most heartfelt moment filmed this year.

Whale Rider received standing ovations at the Toronto Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and it is no wonder. The movie is a remarkable journey of a young woman's longing for acceptance of her grandfather and her right accept the role as leader of the tribe.