Genres
Production Companies
Pandora Film
ApolloMedia
New Zealand Film Production Fund
New Zealand Film Commission
NZ on Air
Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Whale Rider
In the ways of the ancients she found a hope for the future.
Overview
On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.
Key Crew
Producer: Tim Sanders, Frank Hübner, John Barnett
Screenplay: Niki Caro
Director of Photography: Leon Narbey
Director: Niki Caro
Top Cast
Keisha Castle-Hughes
Paikea Apirana
Rawiri Paratene
Koro
Vicky Haughton
Nanny Flowers
Cliff Curtis
Porourangi
Grant Roa
Uncle Rawiri
Mana Taumaunu
Hemi
Rachel House
Shilo
Taungaroa Emile
Willie
Videos
Whale Rider 20th Anniversary Edition - Official Trailer
whale rider official film trailer 2002
