THE ORATOR (O LE TULAFALE)

New Zealand/Samoa, 2011, 100 minutes, Colour.
Fa’afiaula Sanote, Tausili Pushparaj.
Directed by Tusi Tamasese.

Not often do we see a film made in Samoa – since this is the first feature film from Samoa.

We slow down to Pacific time to become involved with a story of struggles in village life. Beautifully photographed, we see the natural beauty of the Samoan islands and country side. We also experience the traditions, benign and harsh, the hierarchical structures of authority, and the ordinary lives of people in the villages.

The orator of the title is Saili, a dwarf. He has inherited land from his parents but it is being encroached on by villagers who feel free to plant their own tara and harvest their crops. What will he do about it? He approaches a chief to make his case, since he has not been given his chief’s title, but he is rather timid in the circumstances. Saili also has a job as a night watchman at a local store but falls foul of the young men and one of the police. What complicates matters is that he has taken in a woman long since, a woman who had been exiled from her village with her daughter, and has given her love, shelter and care. When she dies, her relatives want to take over, so the orator has to take a stand for what he believes in.

The funeral sequence brings matters to a head, accusations and reconciliation, the importance of food and gifts for the authorities to be esteemed and to do their duties.

This is not high drama, well not for the audience as it is for the main characters. We have the leisurely pace to observe, to sympathise and to learn more about a Pacific culture that we do not always know much about.

1. The first Samoan feature film? A film of the Pacific? The story, the style of storytelling?

2. Audience knowledge of life in the Pacific? Interest? The sense of place, the islands of Samoa? The lifestyle and customs? The people?

3. The beauty of the photography, the mountains, the villages, the homes, the assemblies?

4. The sense of place for the credibility of the story and the characters? The musical score?

5. The introduction to Saili, at the grave of his parents, hearing the voices, the people working the land, the crop of yams, clearing the crops?

6. Saili as a dwarf, people’s reaction to him, the outside? As a character, his parents, their grave? Taking his wife in, her daughter? His visits to the chief? Himself being a chieftain but not moving towards acceptance of this? His hopes? Present with the chief, his confiding in him? The chief admiring his character?

7. At home, with his wife, her illness, the daughter, his being a night guard at the store, wanting his land? His relating to people?

8. His wife in exile, her illness, seventeen years exiled from the family, with Saili, with her daughter? Weaving the mats? Urging Saili on? Saili washing her, her fading and dying?

9. The football, the practice, the coach, the attack on Saili?

10. Saili, his defying the group, his security work?

11. His wife’s death, taking the body, the ceremony, the chief, the people with their gifts for the chief, the religious ritual, the material overtones? The other chiefs coming, the insults? Saili in the grave? His trying to save the land, his almost drowning, the rescue?

12. The girl, the pressure, the family, the bus trip, their arrival, the stake, his speech, the gifts and the gift of the mat?

13. Returning in the bus, his achievement?

14. The daughter, relationships, the family? The visit of the representative of the family, the demands, bringing the exiled woman back, the reconciliation? The ceremonies?

15. Saili and the chief, his speech as an orator, his status, returning home, the baby?

16. A portrait of a particular people, insight into their traditions? Universal themes and human nature?