Leadership In The Whale Rider

The film The Whale Rider, directed by Niki Caro, follows the story of a young Maori girl called Pai, to fulfil her destiny of one day becoming the leader of her tribe. One of the most important characters to the story, is the main character, Paikea ‘Pai’ Apirana, She helps the audience appreciate and better understand the themes of leadership, and sexism. Caro uses many techniques to convey these themes, such as symbolism, different camera shots and angles, dialogue and lighting.

Throughout The Whale Rider, the theme of leadership plays a large role in Pai’s character. A lot of this is conveyed through symbolism, one example of this is the rope that Koro tell Pai, represents the tribe and their ancestors, and when he breaks it, Pai is the one to tie it back together and uses it to start back up the boat. This

When she is born, Koro immediately tells Nanny Flowers to “Take her away,” as because of her gender, she has no used to him, as he wished her to be a leader, yet could not let go of the tradition of a male leader. When Pohorangi tells him that her name is Paikea, Koro says "No, not that name." as Paikea was the name of a male leader of their tribe. There are many close-ups of Pai with whale tooth, which Koro states will only be obtained by the new rightful leader of their tribe, yet he still refuses to accept Pai being their leader, even though it has been made clear that she is destined to become their new leader. This helps the viewers to appreciate how hard Pai has worked throughout the film, yet Koro still refuses to accept the part that she must play as the tribe leader.

To conclude, the film, The Whale Rider leaves a strong impression on the viewer, as the combination of the techniques used to convey the themes helps us to understand the importance of Pai’s character to the story. Caro uses these techniques to help convey the important themes of both leadership and