Lee Tamahori’s THE CONVERT weaves a strong net of spectacle and sorrow

A lay preacher finds himself caught in the crossfire of two warring tribes in 1830s New Zealand in Lee Tamahori’s The Convert. In some measures, arguably the most important measures, Liam Maguren says the film hits its marks.

No voyage through Aotearoa New Zealand’s recent history can avoid The Musket Wars. Though Pākeha were well and truly settled during this time, the country was still a dominantly Māori world, the British not yet fully engaged in colonisation until a few decades later, leading to the New Zealand Wars (captured in director Geoff Murphy’s classic Utu).

While the New Zealand Wars devastated the people and the land, the death toll was a mere blip in comparison to The Musket Wars. It’s tragic, uneasy, confronting material to turn into compelling cinema, but if anyone in the country could do it, it’s the man who would make the tragic, uneasy, confronting Once Were Warriors a New Zealand classic. In some measures, arguably the most important measures, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert hits its marks.

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