Rain of the Children

Both ode and farewell to the Maori woman Puhi, who was also filmed by the director almost 30 years previously, when he was still very young. In 1978 (released in 1981), Vincent Ward made the documentary 'In Spring One Plants Alone' about Puhi, an 80 year old Tuhoe Maori woman's day-to-day life in the remote Urewera, caring for her schizophrenic adult son Niki. This docu-drama sets out to unravel the real mystery of Puhi, a woman of extraordinary fortitude who, at the age of 12, was chosen by the Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana to marry his son, Whatu. At 14, she had her first of 14 children while hiding in the bush, having escaped from the 1916 police raid on Rua's community at Maungapohatu. After a tumultuous second marriage and the manslaughter of her third husband, Puhi was left with her dependant son, Niki, to whom she dedicated herself, trying to protect him at all costs. At the age of 21, the naive Vincent Ward met Maori Puhi (almost 80) who led a secluded life with her schizophrenic son Nikki in the outback of New Zealand. He stayed with them for nearly 2 years and used it as the subject for his award-winning observational documentary In Spring One Plants Alone. Thirty years later, he returns to get answers to all the questions still open about the woman who allowed him into her life, but remained silent about her painful past. Ward's expedition quickly grows into a penetrating film version of the greater story of a Maori tribe that surrendered itself to the Tuhu prophet Rua Kenana, who compared their fate with that of the Jews. A turbulent and often violent story was to follow. Rua chose Puhi as the wife for one of his sons and at the age of 14 she had the first of her 14 children. Apart from the youngest, they all died or were taken away from her. Ward combines archive material from his first film with eyewitness accounts from relatives and tribal members still alive and detailed fictional scenes in which several dramatic moments from Puhi’s life are performed by professional actors. With Rain of Children, he is making up Puhi’s last will and testament. He comes to understand why Puhi and her tribe thought that a curse rested on her and he is finally able to let her go.