I have just from seeing an amazingly good Kiwi movie, made this year and set in a coastal village a bit north of Wellington. Well if 'Once were warriors' didn't stir you up than this one will. We were four in the A1 cinema, and it was a smaller one, at the well restored Embassy Cinema at the top of Courtenay Place. The story of a mixed blood family trying to make its way as much as it could in the depressed economy of the east coast, the teenage boy Willie, and his chubby little brother, are the main protagonists, showing how family love wins out in the end. But the tests Willie goes through, and the domestic abuse in his family, are sometimes hard to look at. The alcohol, drugs and partiesin the eighties when it is set are jarringly accurate, but the gypsy caravan and its tight knit family certainly come off the worse. It is a film which deserves to win international prizes, with exceptional acting in all roles.
So now on to my FrenchConversation meeting at the The Establishment cafe. Emma will be there later, but I go early to look at the place. It is a Guinness style pub with the main tables reserved for the French crowd. I lose courage at facing ten new people all drinking and laughing, so I take the easy way and decide to have a Turkish sandwich and go home. Again on Courtenay Place with the locals walking by, the rain has stopped but snow is predicted for tomorrow, my birthday. What a lovely gift!
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