Backbencher

The Piano is a moving story of a young mute woman, Ada, and her daughter Flora who moved to the New Zealand brush to meet Ada's husband. Ada relies on her beloved piano to speak for her, having played it all her life. Upon arrival to New Zealand, she is forced to leave it behind on the beach until their neighbor, George, trades the piano for some of his land. Ada begins to teach George piano lessons and he offers her an opportunity to buy back the piano, one black key for each visit. The visits however lead to a hidden passion and Ada’s life becomes entangled in a web of passion and betrayal that is judged by the Maori natives and the other settlers in the area.

The movie is quite graphic and at times can make one uncomfortable, but the storyline pulls one past that. Though experiencing the island in silence, Ada brings a depth to the idea of isolation and an understanding of what the first settlers might have experienced. The movie uses Ada's silence to enrich the overall theme, though the movie could be set in any location. The ideas aren't specific to the New Zealand area but more explores the themes of social interaction and relationships in a new and unfamiliar territory. In the end Ada leaves her husband and drops her piano into the sea, severing all ties with her past and her connection to the brush of New Zealand, allowing herself to move on.

Ada ends with a prophetic quote from a Scottish writer, Thomas Hood as she watches her piano and old life drift into the sea:

"There is a silence where hath been no sound
There is a silence where no sound may be in the cold grave
In the cold grave, under the deep deep sea..."