One Thousand Ropes

2016

98 mins

Directed by Tusi Tamasese
100%
85%
Drama

A father reconnects with his estranged teenage daughter in this drama from Samoan New Zealand writer-director Tusi Tamasese (The Orator).... More

A father reconnects with his estranged teenage daughter in this drama from Samoan New Zealand writer-director Tusi Tamasese (The Orator). Set in Wellington, New Zealand.

"An old man buries a placenta underneath a lemon tree. Later, we see his hand gently rolling a lemon back and forth on a table, as if he were massaging it. Besides his job at the bakery Maea also works as a traditional birth attendant, a task that requires him to competently massage the bellies of pregnant women. At home tell-tale pale stains on the wall bear witness to pictures that have been removed – Maea has distanced himself from his family following a traumatic and violent episode.

"But then one day his daughter Ilisa appears at his door. She is pregnant, and has also been physically abused by her boyfriend. What’s more, the spirit of a woman who frequently appears to be sitting in the corner of his living room suddenly decides not to want to go back to her grave in the cemetery. Unfolding in impressive, mythical images of compelling concentration, Tamasese tells a story about a man trying to face his past, his daughter and his inner 'demons'." (Berlin International Film Festival)

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One Thousand Ropes | Ratings & Reviews

100_%7 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
85_%63 reviews
Audience score rating

"Pixar legend Andrew Stanton did a TED talk about how to tell a great story. In it, he shared this piece of sage advice – don’t give them ‘4’; give them ‘2 + 2’. It essentially means that while you can directly tell an audience your message, it’s far more powerful if you make them come to that conclusion themselves. With One Thousand Ropes, Tusi Tamasese pulls off that kind of smart storytelling, and that’s what ultimately makes it one of the most intelligent films to come out of New Zealand and Samoa."

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Flicks

"It is his [Petaia's] unshowy performance and quiet demeanour that makes his character's "transition" from a violent past all the more powerful."

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Stuff

"...an intoxicating film which is beautifully told."

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Stuff

"[Delivers] enough intrigue, craft and slow-burning command of mood and atmosphere to win festival circuit favour..."

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Screen Daily

"An exhausting and moving experience - in a good way."

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New Zealand Herald

"Gloomy, bleak and slow-moving - and all the more powerful because of it."

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Newsroom

"An intimate, confronting and haunting story which I found profoundly moving..."

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Newshub

"Combines melancholy domestic drama with spiritual and supernatural elements, and while the latter could have been more robustly developed, a quiet power accumulates nonetheless."

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