THE STORY – Far from home and haunted by visions, a Māori woman uncovers gruesome secrets inside an English manor.
THE CAST – Ariaana Osborne, Toby Stephens, Umi Myers, Evelyn Towersey & Erroll Shand
THE TEAM – Taratoa Stappard (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 89 Minutes
Mary (Ariaana Osborne), a young Māori woman who grew up in an orphanage, has been traveling from New Zealand for 73 days, and she is tired. But upon arriving at her destination in Whitby, North Yorkshire, she doesn’t find Thomas Boyd, the mysterious man who wrote to her with the promise of the truth about her family, just a small, empty cottage. After a restless night plagued by violent visions, Mary is brought to the manor house of wealthy whaler Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens), who tells her that Boyd recently passed away and offers her a position as governess to his granddaughter, Anne (Evelyn Towersey). Halfway around the world from home and with no other prospects, Mary feels obliged to accept. Before long, she learns that Cole is fetishistic about Māori culture to the point of obsession, decorating his home with artifacts and even bringing a traditional Māori house fully intact from New Zealand to his garden in England. The longer she stays with the Coles, the more it seems as though the house is haunted by Māori spirits, who poke and prod her waking and sleeping hours. What are they trying to tell her? And will she figure it out before it’s too late?
Taratoa Stappard’s “Mārama” opens with a stark message about its contents, noting that the film is grounded in real history and features “disturbing scenes of the violation and desecration of Māori culture,” before justifying itself by reminding the audience that “to move into our future, we need to understand our past.” The damage done to Māori culture as part of the colonization of New Zealand is one of the lesser-told stories of colonization’s evil reach, one that’s often hidden behind tales of mastering the seven seas and their giant inhabitants. In part because modern eyes look away from whaling as a barbaric practice, they also look away from the oppression of the Māori people by the British colonizers. But if we want to take action in the present to make things better for the Māori people, we must grapple with these stories and with what they mean, no matter how ugly or difficult to get through.
“Mārama” tells this story as a Gothic tale of dark manor houses, strange nocturnal noises, romantic gowns, and ghostly visions – a perfect genre for a history so full of unspeakable horrors. Stappard fills the film with the thick atmosphere the genre demands, using plenty of low light and creepy in-camera effects to fill the viewer with unease and dread. There are exceedingly few jump scares, but Gothic stories deal with the uncanny more than the outright scary, and every inch of the frame drips with the eerie dreariness and mysterious mystique that make for an unforgettable Gothic setting. While you can spot indicators of this being Stappard’s first feature throughout (the low light hides much of the sets, the transitions in and out of Mary’s dreams don’t flow well), he comes up with such clever, effective ways to hide his low budget that you immediately want to see what he could accomplish with stronger studio backing. The film isn’t perfect, but Stappard’s talent is immediately clear in how effectively the film keeps you unsettled. The story progression never goes slack, and Stappard’s scenario offers plenty of thrilling moments for the actors to chew on, providing plenty of entertainment to make the film’s harrowing story go down as smoothly as possible.
With such juicy material, it speaks well to Stappard’s strength with actors that no one ever goes badly over the top. Both Osborne and Stephens get some show-stopping moments to be sure, but they never chew the scenery, keeping everything in a believably heightened, genre-appropriate register. Cole is as close to a mustache-twirling villain as you can get, and Stephens brings a sense of menace to the character that undergirds even his nicest moments. You can feel Cole’s genuine appreciation for Māori people even as he perverts it toward his own ends. His ultimate motivations are a bit thinly sketched – he seemingly just wants to possess as many things as possible – but since he’s a stand-in for colonialist ideals in general, it works, especially given his forceful performance. Osborne’s large, expressive eyes make her a natural onscreen. As the film goes on and Mary figures out what her visions are telling her, she unleashes a righteous fury that the film can barely contain. When she finally explodes in the film’s climax, breaking out into a Māori chant and traditional dance while draped in a maroon Victorian-era gown, she does so with such force that it feels as though dozens of other Māori women and men are doing so alongside her. It’s a moment of terrifying beauty, and Stappard maintains that operatic emotional peak through the film’s final shot. Osborne is the lifeblood that keeps the film moving, and her vibrant performance foretells a bright future for her.
True to its opening text, “Mārama” is difficult to watch at times. Stappard never veers into exploitative territory, though. Indeed, one of the benefits of telling this story in the Gothic genre is that it provides prestigious trappings that keep things feeling classy even as the story wades into the muck. Stappard’s control over the film’s tone ensures that the audience never loses sight of the painfully real history that inspired this piece of entertainment. Despite that, the film never feels heavy. The atmosphere draws you in while the characters and story keep you in Stappard’s thrall, hanging onto the film’s every image. It’s a ferocious debut feature that should lead to big things for its talented director and star.
