The Case for the Chief's Speech

If I have understood the hype correctly, the Orator is the first Samoan-only spoken film.  It has got quite a bit of praise (including Kate Rodger, who gave the film a bit of an up-thumbing too) and was a gleaming jewel amongst the detritus littering most of the cinemas at the moment.

I am not sure of the appropriate term to use, but most of the story concerns the dwarf Saili, played by Fiaula Sanote, whose parents have died, and who is struggling with his loss and with the responsibility of looking after the two outcasts from another tribe.  Tausili Pushparaj asVaaiga, his ailing wife, is incredibly intense and provides most of the dialogue in the first half of what, oddly, is a fairly dialogue-free film.  Life on the island is shown as simple, slow-moving and religious, though the politics that bind and divide families and tribes are as complex as they come.

There are some moments of mirth in the film, but most of Saili's story is one painful encounter after another.  After about the third, I wondered if this was the one that would push him over the edge and force him to take control of his destiny.  But no: there were plenty more to come, and the film takes is slow, sweet time letting them take place.  Finally though, the straw breaks the camels back, and the confrontation in the form of the oration, where a formal diplomatic dialogue is used to resolve disputes, gets underway.  And, wow. Even if it is a bit cliché, it is pretty potent stuff.

At two hours, the film is not short, and its ambling pace, mirroring the island way of life, definitely does not make the film feel particularly short either.  For all the island's beauty, there main characters are a pretty morose bunch, with some minor characters providing most of the film's relatively sparse levity. 

Of course, I had to go the Lighthouse to see it, and ended up with a large Samoan family who brought along a pretty active one year old who ran to the screen a couple of times as part of a game.  The little ones hijinks were noticeable, but nowhere near as profoundly irritating as that of some idiots at the end of my row who found almost every scene featuring Saili (intentionally funny, unsettling, or perilous) hilariously funny - possibly just because they were seeing a dwarf on screen doing "stuff".  I was almost at the point of forsaking the rules or Oration and taking to them with a wooden mallet, but instead the film kept me from moving from my seat.

Verdict:  The Orator was a slow, Island Time film, showing both the strengths and failings of a more traditional sort of family life.  It's about finding inner strength and standing up for oneself, no matter who one is, in a way that earns the respect of others, rather than their scorn.  8 taro out of 10.