The Strength of Water

When a mysterious stranger arrives in their isolated coastal town, ten-year-old twins Kimi and Melody are forced apart. Kimi must find the strength to let go of what he loves the most.

The Strength of Water, New Zealand/Germany, 2009

Director: Armagan Ballantyne
Producer: Fiona Copland
Screenplay: Briar Grace-Smith
Photography: Bogumil Godfrejow
Editor: Elizabeth Kling
Production designer: Rick Kofoed
Costume designer: Kirsty Cameron
Music: Peter Golub, Warren Maxwell

With: Hato Paparoa (Kimi), Melanie Mayall-Nahi (Melody), Jim Moriarty (Gibby), Nancy Brunning (Joy), Isaac Barber (Tai), Pare Paseka (Tirea), Shayne Biddle (Gene)

35mm, CinemaScope, M-violence, offensive language, sex scenes, 86 minutes

Festivals: Rotterdam, Berlin 2009, NZIFF 2009

When a mysterious stranger arrives in their isolated coastal town, ten-year-old twins Kimi and Melody are forced apart. Kimi must find the strength to let go of what he loves the most. Kimi and Melody live happily in an isolated Maori community until an enigmatic stranger, Tai, arrives, precipitating an accident which forces the twins apart. While others punish Tai, Kimi acts out his heartbreaking loneliness in destructive, angry ways, while looking after the Melody that only he can see. His family is concerned for him, but only Kimi’s belief in his sister can save him.

"Ten-year-olds Kimi and Melody are twins living with their parents and three siblings on a farm on the Hokianga coast. Together they deliver eggs around the district – and lavish attention on a favoured hen they've named Aroha. The arrival of Tai, a teenage drifter looking to move into the local tapu house that belonged to his grandfather, precipitates a terrible accident. Kimi must learn to live apart from Melody, and Tai must learn to deal with the hostility of those in the small community who equate him with the cursed house. Meanwhile Tirea, the lonely teenage girl in whom Kimi senses a kindred spirit, finds fragile understanding with the outcast Tai. ‘I'm bad luck,’ says he. ‘But when I look at you,’ she replies, ‘I see light.’ The muted frankness with which the characters in this film feel out the bonds of connection is piercingly direct. I cannot think of another New Zealand film in which the natural world is such a living entity as this – or in which animal life is so integral. The lightest of musical scores adds its quiet descant to nature's ebb and flow to remind us that the most meaningful messages are often not shouted, but whispered." — Bill Gosden, New Zealand Film Festival 2009
 
"Shot in and around the hills and inlets of the northern reaches of the Hokianga Harbour, Ballantyne and her Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Bogumil Godfrejow make great use of those brooding landscapes, and the isolation that they enforce on the few scattered communities that shelter there. As the screenplay's engines begin to turn, and the story gathers momentum, Ballantyne's grip on her film's pace and its characters becomes ever surer. There are surprises and revelations in this film, but they are unpacked tidily and in the correct order. And when the story flirts with magical realism and the possibility of a spirit world, Ballantyne deals with these potential awkwardnesses with a pragmatism that saves her film from sliding into whimsy and nonsense. In the leads, Jim Moriarty and Nancy Brunning give performances that are a lesson in control and nuance, while the newcomers in the cast are collectively astonishing. The Strength of Water is a terrific wee film, it may never get the exposure or international kudos of Whale Rider - with which it is going to be endlessly and pointlessly compared - but I liked it a great deal. Do go and see it" - Graeme Tuckett, Dominion Post

Screenings: The Strength of Water screened during the week 1-4 June 2011 as part of a Matariki celebration.