Movie Review: Tinā
Director: Miki Magasiva; Language: English, New Zealand; Currently playing
Vineeta Rao
Auckland, March 5, 2025
I give you fair warning. Miki Magasiva’s Tinā is a minimum three-hanky tear-jerker.
I caught the movie last night after a lot of internal debate about whether or not I wanted to subject myself to what I knew would be an undoubtedly emotional drama.
And I am certainly glad I did.
This is not a new story. It is a comfortable and familiar one with themes you will soon recognise. Tinā or mother, is Mareta Percivale, a Samoan school teacher who lost her daughter in the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. Her grief shakes her otherwise steadfast devotion to her low decile pupils and also to her Christian Faith.
Eventually, WINZ insists that she gets a job or at least shows that she is trying. Her nephew and case worker Sio, sets up an interview with a prestigious and pretentious college in the city.
Mareta’s first meeting with the ominous ‘Board’ does not go well. She is not impressed by them nor are they impressed by her. Retiring Principal Alan Hubbard pulls rank and hires Mareta as a substitute teacher but she warns him that she will do her job and that’s it.
Mareta, with her colourful clothes and fiercely protective attitude to the children, sticks out in the school where black and navy blue seems to be the de rigeur dress code for the teachers and children alike.
Connecting with the Children
Mareta’s first few classes are lacklustre. The magic starts to happen when she starts connecting with the children. The school is obsessed with sport and the children are prone to turning on each other like feral cats. We learn that rich children also have their own problems – Sophie is grappling with an injury that may mean the death of her dreams of a musical career and Rugby star Anthony is being bullied by the PE teacher.
But Mareta decides that these problems are nothing that establishing a good Choir cannot solve. What is more, she decides they are going to enter The Big Sing, a National Choir Championship. En route, she administers a healthy dose of some old-fashioned family values like hard work and respect for your elders, reinforced by the familiar weapon of all island and Asian moms – the jandal.
There is plenty of snarky humour that had us chuckling in between our sniffles.
Sparkling performances
But where the story is old and comfortable, the acting and the music elevate the movie.
Anapela Polataivao is regal and commanding in her masterful performance as Mareta. She is restrained initially as a grieving mum, allowing her maternal instincts to slip through as she builds her relationship with troubled teen Sofie. I would have liked the director to explore greater depth to her grief, some more edge, some snap to her tussles with the children and school administration.
Antonia Robinson is great in her performance as Sophie, using subtlety rather than melodrama to relay her angst. Her character does occasionally get overshadowed by the feisty Mei-ling (who was a personal favourite of mine) but I thought it refreshing that she was not everywhere, doing everything. Miki gives his supporting cast plenty of opportunities to shine and they do.
For me, the relationship between Mareta and her nephew Sio, so convincingly played by Beulah Koale, came across as the most genuine and heartwarming. Another outstanding example of chemistry and craft was the relationship between Mareta and her best friend, played by Nicole Whippy.
That is not to say that there were no problems with Tinā.
Vice-Principal Wadsworth, your standard garden variety racist, was played with almost cartoonish glee by Jamie Irvine but I would assign much of the blame to the dialogue writer there. There were audible gasps in the theatre at some of the outrageously racist things his character said such as when he asked Mareta to ‘blend in, better.’
The lady sitting behind me muttered something about him needing to be administered a couple of hard thwacks from Mareta’s jandal and I could not agree more! The villainy was over the top at times and there really was not much difference between Wadsworth and the menacing ‘Member of the Board.’
Racism in Christchurch
But I have been assured that the racism is not overboard -’ oh it is set in Christchurch. That is typical of Christchurch. They really are like that!’ I love Christchurch but, if this is indeed the case, I am so glad I live in Auckland.
Principal Hubbard, played by Dalip Sondhi was competent but his part was written in a rather problematic way in that he came across as your average well-meaning racist and classist – the kind who hires a poor brown woman to teach at a school for rich, mostly white, children so that they ‘can learn something from this.’
As a brown woman myself (albeit a different kind), this sentiment grinds my gears.
The purpose of my life and existence is not to educate you about diversity. It also did not help that when push came to shove and the racists appeared to be winning and shutting down the Choir, Principal Hubbard did not stand up for Mareta or her white and Asian Choir.
But those problems could be overlooked when set side by side with the beautiful relationships that develop between Mareta and her students and between the students themselves. Magasiva demonstrates how even ‘rich children’ are so thirsty to learn from other cultures in a fantastic little scene – a white student skirts the Principal as he cuts through a busy corridor and apologises in Samoan. In what is possibly my favourite scene, the Rugby star, who is also part of the Choir, gets jumped by some of his fellow jocks and his tiny Asian Choir-mate Mei- Ling jumps on the back of one of his attackers and puts him in a chokehold. She matches him burpee for burpee in their punishment for sass, handed out by Mareta. That was when Mareta accomplished her goal and created a cohesive united Choir. I am not ashamed to say, that was another moment when my hanky made one of its frequent appearances in the course of the movie.
Some more credits
I must throw in a word of appreciation for the beautiful soundtrack. The credits list Sebastien Pan and Tuilagi Dr Igelese Ete for the music and they have done a wonderful job.
I remember reading somewhere that the Assisi Sinners, Mareta’s Choir, did their singing and I must admit to being impressed.
The cinematography also deserves some praise – Cinematographer Andrew McGeorge has given us some beautiful moments, notably when Mareta is teaching her children about unity and what it truly means to be a Choir.
All in all, if you were on the fence about going to see this movie, I would strongly recommend that you watch this film. Miki Magasiva has given us a wonderful little story about unity. To me, it stands right there with other good Kiwi films like Red, White & Brass and Next Goal Wins. Do not forget to take those handkerchiefs along!
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.
