Whale Rider

This article is about the film. For the novel, see The Whale Rider.

Whale Rider
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNiki Caro
Screenplay byNiki Caro
Based onThe Whale Rider
by Witi Ihimaera
Produced byJohn Barnett
Frank Hübner
Tim Sanders
Starring
Narrated byKeisha Castle-Hughes
CinematographyLeon Narbey
Edited byDavid Coulson
Music byLisa Gerrard
Production
companies
South Pacific Pictures
ApolloMedia
Pandora Film
New Zealand Film Production Fund
New Zealand Film Commission
NZ On Air
Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Distributed byPandora Film (Germany)
Newmarket Films (USA)
Release dates
  • 11 September 2002 (2002-09-11) (Toronto)
  • 30 January 2003 (2003-01-30) (New Zealand)
  • 25 July 2003 (2003-07-25) (Germany)
Running time
101 minutes [1]
CountriesNew Zealand
Germany
LanguagesEnglish
Māori
BudgetNZ$$9.2 million[2]
(approx. US$3.5 million)[3]
Box office$41.4 million[3]

Whale Rider is a 2002 New Zealand drama film written and directed by Niki Caro. Based on the 1987 novel The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, the film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Kahu Paikea Apirana, a twelve-year-old Māori girl whose ambition is to become the chief of the tribe. Her grandfather believes that this is a role reserved for males only.

The film was a coproduction between New Zealand and Germany. It was shot on location in Whangara, the setting of the novel. The world premiere was on 9 September 2002, at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film received critical acclaim upon its release. At age 13, Keisha Castle-Hughes became the youngest nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress before she was surpassed by Quvenzhané Wallis, at age 9, for Beasts of the Southern Wild, in 2012, less than a decade later. The film earned $41.4 million[3] on a NZ$9,235,000 budget. In 2005, the film was named on the BFI List of the 50 Films You Should See By the Age of 14.

  1. ^ "WHALE RIDER (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 20 February 2003. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference nzfc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Whale Rider at Box Office Mojo