A small but spirited 1954-set drama about a group of “delinquent” teenage girls who plan a daring escape from the one-dock New Zealand island where they’ve been sent for institutional Christianization, Māori filmmaker Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s “We Were Dangerous” does its best to remain upbeat as the agents of colonization try to assert their control over its characters’ bodies. It’s a promising debut that does its best to remain upbeat as the agents of colonization try to assert their control over its characters’ bodies, as Stewart-Te Whiu skillfully combines the pluck of “A Little Princess” with the irreverence of executive producer Taika Waititi’s“Hunt for the Wilderpeople.”
Light on its feet even in the face of forced sterilization, Stewart-Te Whiu’s debut wields its upbeat tone as a rousing show of defiance unto itself; if that means whittling this story down to its 82-minute skeleton in order to keep the darkness at bay, it’s at least a compromise the filmmaker strikes with clear intention. After all, “We Were Dangerous” isn’t a doom-laden exposé about a specific episode of female dehumanization. It’s a hopeful — sometimes borderline exuberant — rallying cry for girls to stick together across the various divides that people use to disempower them.
