Tangata Whai Rawa o Weniti, Te

Alternative title: Maori Merchant of Venice,the
Synopsis: Feature film. A Maori-language adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.
Language: Maori
Country: New Zealand
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 2003
Duration: 158 mins

Director

Don C. Selwyn

Producer

Linda Fenwick; Ruth Kaupua Panapa

Cinematographer

Davorin Fahn

Writer

William Shakespeare

Screenplay

Pei Te Hurinui Jones

Music

Charles Cockburn; Hirini Melbourne

Art Direction

Viv Kernick

Cast

Waihoroi Shortland	Hairoka (Shylock)
Scott Morrison	Anatonio (Antonio)
Te Rangihau Gilbert	Patanio (Bassanio)
Ngarimu Daniels	Pohio (Portia)
Sonny Kikikiri	Karatiano (Gratiano)
Andy Sarich	Tupara (Tubal)
Eru Potaka-Dewes	Kaumatua Kopo (Old Gobbo)
Joe Naden	Tiuka o Weniti (Duke of Venice)
Lawrence Makoare	Pirihina o Morako (Prince of Morocco)
Mana Epiha	Ranaharoto (Launcelot Gobbo)
Ngatai Rangihau	Renato (Leonardo)
Samson Pehi	Pirihina o Arakona (Prince of Arragon)
Tamati Rice	Parahata (Balthazar)
Te Arepa Kahi	Roreneto (Lorenzo)
Te Kauhoe Wano	Hararino (Salerio)
Veeshayne Armstrong	Nerita (Nerissa)
Wharehoka Wano	Haranio (Solanio)

Notes: Shot on digital video.
General: The first feature film to be shot in the Maori language. Selwyn produced the play on stage, in this translation, for the 1990 Koanga Festival in Auckland.
History: First screened on 15 February 2002 at Waikato University.
Textual information: Maori scholar Dr Pei Te Hurinui Jones translated the play into poetic Maori in 1945. The film has modern-English subtitles.
Reviews: Edwards, Sam. Waikato Times (18 February 2002).

Silverstone, Catherine ‘Speaking Maori-Shakespeare: The Maori Merchant of Venice and the Legacy of Colonisation’ in Burnett, Mark Thornton & Wray, Ramona (eds) Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

Online URL: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hetaonga/merchant/the_production.html

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