Vincent Ward. Photo / Wairarapa Times-Age
Director Vincent Ward Director Vincent Ward's latest, Rain of Children, is to have its New Zealand premiere at the forthcoming Auckland International Film Festival.
The film, which revisits his first feature _ 1980's In Spring One Plants Alone, about 80-year-old Puhi who lived in remote Tuhoe country
in the Ureweras, looking after her schizophrenic son _ is also one of 12 titles in the first official competition held by the Sydney Film Festival.
Rain of Children will have its world premiere at the Sydney festival on June 7. Its first New Zealand screenings will be at the Auckland Festival on Saturday July 12 and the Wellington Festival a week later.
Sydney Festival director Clare Stewart has described the film as "deeply personal and incredibly moving". The cast, who appear in historical re-creations about Puhi's life as the daughter-in-law of Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana, include Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison.
