At the Cinema...with Hans Petrovic Welcome ceremonials for film crew in Samoa

Press, 27 December 1979, Page 10

At the Cinema...with Hans Petrovic Welcome ceremonials for film crew in Samoa

Samoan ceremonies was one of the first things which greeted 24 New Zealanders when they went to Western Samoa to shoot key scenes in the feature film, “Sons for the Return Home,” which will open in Christchurch early next year. The New Zealanders made up the crew and part of the cast of the film, which tells the story of a Samoan family who return home after 15 years in New Zealand. The story centres around one of their sons who had been in love with a New Zealand girl, and who cannot forget her; the film tells the story of their relationship and the many pressures and prejudices which they faced in a multi-cultural situation. The film crew drove for an hour out of Apia to the! remote village of Matautu,: Which had been selected by the director, Paul Maunder,! for central sequences.

The New Zealanders discovered that ceremonies of welcome at the small village (population 300 people) took not only an entire day but also most of the ensuing evening.

The New Zealand party included some Samoans who now live in New Zealand, who were all welcomed on the outskirts of the village by the wives of the matais (chiefs) dressed in white with flowers in their hair. The women presented the visitors with lies of flowers made by the village children.

Next the New Zealanders were taken into the house of the high chief, where they sat cross-legged on the floor, opposite the village’s 20 matais. The atmosphere, the New Zealanders recalled later, was friendly but serious.

There was much discussion amongst the matai about who would have the honour of welcoming the New Zealand party. All the speeches were in Samoan, with one of the chiefs acting as translator.

A Samoan in the New Zealand group was chosen as chief spokesman for the visitors. He was Lani Tupu, from Wellington, who plays the father of the leading man in the film.

But speeches were also expected. and delivered, from the director, Paul Maunder, and the production manager, Grahame McLean. Next came a kava ceremony, with more speeches but briefer ones this time. The kava ceremony took two hours. And then came the food, served in half a coconut shell. After the food, more speeches. By this time most of the day had passed, and it was time for the director and production manager to begin discussing the contract which would allow them to film in the village. As Maunder and McLean finalised details of their formal contract, entertainment for the other New Zealanders went on late into the night.

For the village people, the arrival of the film crew was a unique event and the welcoming ceremonies showed how they felt. For the New Zealanders the

ceremonies were an introduction to a fascinating time working in a remote settlement where the way of life has changed little for hundreds of years. And for the audiences who see “Sons for the Return Home,” the results of the filming will be a number of fascinating sequences which highlight the extraordinary differences between life on a Pacific island and life in New Zealand.

Paul Maunder was helped by the author, Albert Wendt, when he started a search for a Samoan village needed for key sequences in his film. Albert Wendt, himself a Samoan, wrote “Sons for the Return Home,” in 1973; it was the first time that a novel by a Samoan writer Shad been published and the book has been a best-seller in New Zealand ever since [then.

I Maunder started his plans Ito create a film from the 'book when he visited Wendt iin Western Samoa in 1978. I Wendt, who was born in Samoa but educated in New Zealand, is now director of the University of the South Pacific Centre in Apia. Maunder wanted to find a village which was an oldstyle community with as few European-style houses as possible. The Samoan-style houses (or fales) had to be grouped together so that the film crew could convey the sense of community which is such a noticeable feature of Samoan village life. The village was to be a key element in the film’s Samoan sequences. The leading character in the film (as in the book) is Sione, a Samoan who has been brought up in New; Zealand, but who returns; home to Western Samoa after completing his univer-; sity education, only to find that his New Zealand up-i bringing has not equipped him for life on a remote Pa-; cific island.

While in his parent’s home village', he also has the strongest memories Of a love affair with a New Zealand girl. The film then goes on to show the path of the love affair back in New Zealand’s North Island.

The chosen village, Matautu, is a self-sufficient community. Apart from canned fish and kegs of salt beef, the villagers grow or catch all their own food and sell all surplus produce in order to get money to buy clothing. There is no electricity in Matautu, except for a tiny generator which provides light for the church and the pastor’s house.

Paul Maunder decided that the best way to repay the village people for the use of their community was to give them a generator — in that way, he felt the whole village would benefit. However. the village people, after lengthy consideration of this offer, decided that they would prefer a gift of money, and the amount 'was divided among every 'resident of the village.