Mother Tongue | movie | 2024 | Official Featurette - video Dailymotion

A young speech therapist disconnected from her Tongan heritage lies about her Tongan language skills to get a job. Out o | dG1fMWxWd3RzbnR3U1E

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 [SPEAKING MAORI]

00:05 My name is Via Mafileo, and I'm the director

00:08 of Lea Te Puanga, Mother Tongue.

00:11 This film is important to me because it

00:13 reflects on being a hawhikasi, which is

00:16 half Tongan and half Palangi.

00:18 The writer and lead actress of the film is Luciani Buchanan.

00:23 You might recognize her from The Night Agent.

00:26 She has a similar heritage, so we have a lot in common.

00:29 The feeling of living between two worlds

00:32 and navigating through these, at times, awkward spaces,

00:37 it touches on issues that we have around being

00:40 accepted by full Tongans.

00:43 OK, CRC, how do you feel about your condition?

00:48 [SPEAKING MAORI]

00:49 The film uses language to highlight the point,

00:59 how do we connect to our cultures

01:00 if we don't have the language?

01:02 And how can we find belonging?

01:06 It also speaks of feeling inside Loto Mawana.

01:10 It's a very Tongan concept, and I

01:12 think that's something that is quite unique to this film,

01:15 is the exploration of Loto Mawana.

01:18 Having a Tongan story have its world premiere at Sundance

01:22 is huge.

01:23 And being able to have this kind of platform

01:26 and our stories being told in this space is incredible.

01:28 So we really look forward to seeing you all there.

01:32 [SPEAKING MAORI]

01:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:42 [AUDIO OUT]

01:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]