Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu

A young girl finds comfort in play and slowly reconnects with her distant father after her mother walks out on the family.

Nellie, Daisy and Lou attend an institution for delinquent girls on an isolated island in 1954. The trio rail against the system, finding strength in their friendship but this is challenged when the school's matron divides them.

1960s, East Coast of New Zealand. Two Māori sheep-shearing families, the Mahanas and the Poatas, are longstanding enemies and commercial rivals. 14-year-old Simeon Mahana, the youngest son of the youngest son is in conflict with his traditionalist grandfather, Tamihana. As Simeon unravels the truth behind the longstanding family vendetta he risks not just his own future prospects but the cohesion of the entire tight-knit society.

Eight Māori female directors have each contributed a sequence to this powerful and challenging feature which unfolds around the tangi of a small boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.

The lives and loves of the residents of Ferndale.