Backbencher

This movie is about the life of a young girl that is born in to a family with a grandpa as the tribe leader. Her mom died during childbirth, along with her twin brother. Grandpa was very angry and hard on his son. He didn't want anything to do with his granddaughter. He was more angry when his son named his daughter Paikea, after the great warrior that rode a whale to the new country. Dad ends up leaving the town and Pai is raised by her grandparents. She becomes closest to Grandpa over the years. Dad is continually criticized when he comes to visit for abandoning the tribe and his daughter. Grandpa is a big stickler for tradition. Grandpa is even more mad when Pai's dad says that his German girlfriend is pregnant. Grandpa wants him to have a first born son to become the tribe leader. Grandpa is frustrated and Pai decides to go with her dad to Germany. She changes her mind after one day and comes back home. Grandpa opens a school to train the young boys of the tribe on the ways of the chief of the ancient tribes. Pai is turned away by grandpa since she is a girl. She secretly learns the ways of the chief by spying on the school and asking her uncle for help. To sum up the rest, none of the boys can complete the task of retrieving Grandpa's whale tooth necklace from the sea. Pai eventually recovers it and gives it to Grandma. She holds on to it because Grandpa become ill with worry about the future of the tribe. Pai ends up succeeding in calling in the great whale of Paikea to help the tribe. The whales beach themselves. The community has no luck in saving them. Pai ends up saving the great whale by herself and rides the whale in the ocean like her namesake. Grandpa ends up forgiving himself for being so hard on Pai and she becomes the chief of the tribe despite the old ways say it must be a boy.

I thought that this movie was very good. I'll admit it, I cried also. I thought that the story line resembled the Native American ways of life. Tradition is a hard thing to break and especially the older generation wants nothing to do with it. I would highly recommend this movie to others that aren't in our class. It has an interesting story line and never seemed to be too slow or be uninteresting. I felt bad for the way that Grandpa treated Pai throughout her childhood, but in the end, it all worked out.