MURU
New Zealand / 2022 / 104 min / DCP / Adventure
Director : Tearepa Kahi
Script : Tearepa Kahi
Cinematography : Fred Renata
Editing : John Gilbert
Music : Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper
Production : Tame Iti, Selina Joe, Reikura Kahi
Seller : Arclight
Cast : Cliff Curtis (Sgt 'Taffy' Tawharau), Jay Ryan (Gallagher), Manu Bennett (Kimiora), Simone Kessell (Maria), Tame Iti)
Toronto Film Festival 2022
Inspired by actual events, Muru is the story of a local Police Sergeant ‘Taffy’ Tāwharau, who must choose between duty to his badge or his people, when the Government invoke antiterrorism powers to launch an armed raid on Taffy’s remote Urewera community, on a school day. This gripping action drama is not a re-creation, but a response to the 2007 Tūhoe raids. Muru is a Māori concept for 'forgiveness’.
Tearepa Kahi
Tearepa Kahi (born in 1994), is a New Zealand film director and former actor of Ngāti Paoa and Waikato Tainui descent. Kahi's father was a musician who toured with Billy TK. As a teenager, he spent two years as a part of a theatre troupe run by actor Jim Moriarty. Moving to his grandmother's house in Pukekohe, Kahi studied history and Māori at the University of Auckland. From 1999 to 2002, Kahi acted in minor roles on television shows including Shortland Street, Mataku and Aroha – Irikura, and in the Don Selwyn film The Maori Merchant of Venice (2002). Kahi's co-wrote the short film The Speaker with rapper Savage, which won the award for best short film at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival. In 2007 he directed the short Taua selected at the Festival des Antipodes 2008. Kahi's debut wide release feature film Mt. Zion was one of the most successful New Zealand films of 2013. Kahi debuted as a television director in 2016, with the release of the Whakaata Māori historical drama series Kairākau (2016). In 2016, Kahi released his second feature film, Poi E: The Story of a Song, a film documenting the story of the Pātea Māori Club, Dalvanius Prime and the creation of the 1984 hit Māori language single "Poi E". This was followed by a documentary of New Zealand reggae band Herbs in 2019 (Herbs: Songs of Freedom). In 2022, Kahi released Muru, a dramatisation of the 2007 New Zealand police raids. Kahi is a member of the board of the New Zealand International Film Festival.