Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Taratoa Stappard
Starring: Ariāna Osborne, Toby Stephens, Umi Myers, Erroll Shand, Jordan Mooney
A key trope of folk horror is that of a protagonist who leaves "the civilised world" for somewhere more primal and in touch with nature. With his feature debut Mārama, writer/director Taratoa Stappard has flipped this setup on his head. Set in 1859, the film sees a young Māori woman make the long journey from the rugged terrain of the newly colonised New Zealand to England. The world she finds there is far from civilised.
Mārama eludes to Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' in its opening, with Mary (Ariāna Osborne, daughter of All-Black star Glen Osborne) arriving in the Yorkshire port of Whitby before a gruff carriage driver drops her off in the middle of nowhere, as though terrified to approach her destination.
That destination is the home of a man who sent her a letter claiming he has information on her family history. Arriving at the home she is greeted by local bigwig Nathaniel (Toby Stephens), who claims that the letter writer recently passed away. When Mary is taken to Nathaniel's mansion, she is surprised to find that he speaks her native tongue, having run a shipping company that employed many of her people. He has an unhealthy obsession with Māori culture that immediately makes Mary uneasy.
When Nathaniel begs Mary to stay and become governess to his granddaughter Anne (Evelyn Towersey), whose Māori mother passed away in childbirth, she decides to accept. She is won over by the charming Anne, but she also hopes she can find answers about her family. Mary was raised by an English father and French mother, but she regularly has visions of her real family, who cry out to her from the reflections of mirrored surfaces and sing to her in dreams.
Stappard riffs heavily on Gothic horror, with the setup of a governess uncovering the horrors beneath the surface of a country manor straight out of Henry James' classic tale 'The Turn of the Screw'. But the supernatural remains ambiguous here, with the audience left to decide if Mary's ancestors are appearing as ghosts or simply figments of her mind.
The real horrors here come from the living, and from the legacy of colonialism. Stappard does for British colonialists here as Jordan Peele did for white American liberals in Get Out. If a Māori ran for Prime Minister, Nathaniel would likely have voted for him three times. His obsession with Māori culture seems built more on possession than respect, his home a grotesque museum to a plundered people. Even worse is his right hand man Jack (Erroll Shand), who has gone so far as to have his face adorned with traditional Māori tattoos.
Gradually, Mārama segues from Gothic horror to revenge fantasy as Mary, who comes to reclaim her real name (the "Mārama" of the title), uncovers the grisly truth of Nathaniel's relationship to her family. The straw that breaks her back here is a remarkable set-piece in which Nathaniel and his toff friends gather for a "celebration" of Māori culture that amounts to cultural desecration. Shand is terrifying as Jack puts on a sinister display of cosplay that sets Mary/Mārama off. As our heroine launches into a haka, we see her transform before our eyes into a proud warrior defending her heritage.
The film's Māori dialogue is subtitled throughout, save for the words Mārama spouts during her righteous haka. Those words are for the Māori, not for the rest of us, but anyone from a former British colony will relate to Mārama's rage.
