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The Convert

The year is 1830. A ship is on its way to New Zealand, the captain charged with delivering lay preacher, Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) to Epworth, a British settlement on the fringes of Māori territory. Making landfall down the coast to pick up some lumber, Munro comes across some trouble between two tribes. Long story short, he becomes the ward of a young woman, and off they sail to Epworth.

Upon arrival, the snooty townsfolk don't take too kindly to Munro's 'inclusive' forbearance, but they have external issues to concern them as well. They are renting their land from the local tribal chief, Maianui (Antonio Te Maioha), whose daughter is the woman in Munro's care, Rangimai (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne). As well as this, a hard-case chief, Akatarewa (Lawrence Makoare) - seen earlier meting out some rough justice to Rangimai's fella - has designs on Maianui's land. Tinderbox potential.

Director (and co-writer) Lee Tamahori has a really eclectic showreel, from his feature debut gem, Once Were Warriors, to the Anthony Hopkins survival thriller, The Edge, to a crack at 007 with Die Another Day. The fact that The Convert is only his tenth feature is pretty surprising, though he's dabbled in TV a bit, too. He seems at home in this vista. The story is well paced, believable and reasonably cliche averse.

The performances are roundly solid. Pearce portrays the clenched stoicism of Munro well and it's good to see Jacqueline Mackenzie too, but the standout turn is Makoare's. His clownish menace is perfectly pitched, and the scene where Munro goes to his camp to propose a peaceful solution is superb stuff. Ginny Loane's cinematography is another match-winner. There's a lush, damp feel to the film and the moist New Zealand air is easily evoked.

The climactic battle plays out like a rushed Seven Samurai, but with six mercenaries fewer - ONE Samurai or its remake, The Magnificent ONE. Rather than focus on Munro as the 'white saviour', though, it reinforces his total repudiation of the British authority, his conversion to the native way.

The Convert opens at the Luna and Palace cinemas on Jun 20th.

See also:

The unforgiving setting is reminiscent of Hlynur Pálmason's Godland (2022), as well as John Hillcoat's fantastic The Proposition (2005) (also with Guy Pearce), but the character of Munro mirrors Peter O'Toole's Lawrence in David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

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