Once Were Warriors

The film's story is both culturally specific and broadly universal and that duality is a large part of what makes Once Were Warriors work.

Once Were Warriors has more to say than the traditional TV-movie about spousal abuse. But some viewers will have to pay a price: This is a movie that requires strength and fortitude to sit through.

You can feel director Lee Tamahori doing his best to get a rise out of you. Yet his work has fire and substance, too.

At once upsetting and highly involving, it packs an undeniable punch.

An uncompromising, emotionally draining drama that presents the urbanization of New Zealand's Maori as a cultural disaster, one that is mirrored in the shards of a shattering marriage. This explosive first film by director Lee Tamahori focuses on the transformation of a battered wife, but its story is fueled by the machismo of the disenfranchised Maori male.

Domestic violence has never been more savagely portrayed on screen.

There's little new here, but uniformly powerful performances (especially Owen's) give the tale unexpected power and depth, and the exotic details--like the elaborate tribal tattoos worn by Nig's gang, or the Maori chants Boogie learns in reform school--make the Heke family's descent into misery seem fresher than it otherwise might.