Romance of “Hinemoa”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 252, 14 January 1928, Page 21

Romance of “Hinemoa”

AN N.Z. PICTURE FOR NEW ZEALANDERS Maori Legend on Screen IT is not often that a New Zealand film is released in the Homeland before we see it in the Dominion. Such was the case, however, with “Hinemoa,” the Gaumont production of the oft-told Maori theme, which will be seen at the Princess and Tivoli theatres next week. Mr. Gustav Paoli, the producer, was supported by an allMaori cast.

’JVHD Prime Minister (Mr. Coates) was in England at the time of the initial screening of “Hinemoa,” and he afterwards expressed himself as delighted with the film. The film is rich in scenes of tribal

It was decided that the gods should decide whether Tutanekai was innocent or not. He was condemned to pass through the Valley of Fire, a place of boiling mudsprings, trembling red-hot earth, sulphurous fumes, and clouds of dense vapour. This scene is said to have been taken with considerable risk in the crater of an active volcano at White Island in the Bay of Plenty. Tutanekai, who emerged from the ordeal without “a stain on his character,” returned to his tribe. It was then that Hinemoa, made desperate by the prospect of being married to an elderly chieftain from the South, decided to run away and join her youthful admirer. So Hinemoa swam under the moon across the lake at Rotorua and eventually came to the hot spring on the shore, which is to this day pointed out as the place where she rested after her ordeal. Into it she plunged to restore life to her shivering body. “Hinemoa” is a New Zealand picture for New Zealanders. It should have a successful run throughout the country.

life, including the performance of the haka. The racial dignity of the Maoris, the beautiful scenery surrounding the Rotorua country, where it was photographed, and the story of a sincere and passionate love, are said to be remarkably well i presented.

The story is almost too well known to every New Zealander to need repeating. It will suffice to say that Hinemoa, a princess of the Arawas, loved Tutanekai. While the handsome young chieftain was at the home of Hinemoa’s father he was falsely accused of having stolen food from the storehouse, which was, of course, tapu.