Film Review

Whale Rider

Studio: Newmarket Films 
Director: Niki Caro 
Screenwriter: Niki Caro 
Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes
US release June 6, 2003

Made in New Zealand, this film is a poetic rendition of how a granddaughter grows as a leader to overcome her grandfather’s objections to her emerging as the new chief of the tribe.  He is the aging chief who was counting on a grandson to train in the art of leadership. 

Although he is raising her with tenderness, he has excluded her from martial arts training, and from other opportunities in leadership development.  She is diminished to only being a spectator of the boys in school being trained by her grandfather. 

She has the natural abilities of a born leader, but she needs to build her leadership and confidence.  She secures the mentorship of her grandmother on how to overcome her grandfather’s objections and how to find alternate ways to build her skills. 

In the end she is successful through a demonstration of her powers to revive a school of huge whales that had beached themselves on the village beach and were dying.  The scene is an unforgettable one, where the whole tribe is on the beach and unsuccessfully tries to move the leader-whale back to the ocean in the hope of getting the others to move.   When everyone abandons the project, she manages to get on top of the leader-whale and ride him/her out to sea, with the rest of the whales following… 

Full of rich symbolism, and shot in beautiful settings, the film touches on several themes of leadership development and some of them in a symbolic, mythical way.  It promotes the power of persistence despite adversity and prejudice, the need to access the wisdom of those who have been here before, the resourcefulness to pursue others’ help, and the need to build skills and confidence rather than being complacent because of good natural abilities. 

In the film library of those who want to build leadership for themselves or for those who are coaching others to leadership development – particularly women’s development – this film could add a great tool of inspiration, education and motivation.