Samoan New Zealand director Tusi Tamasese's second feature, One Thousand Ropes, resonates with the same quiet power and restraint of his award-winning debut, The Orator.
A brooding and solemn story about a family fractured by its difficult and violent past and its patriarch's search for redemption, this English and Samoan language film is an exhausting and moving experience - in a good way.
Maea is an intriguing protagonist in the hands of the understated Uelese Petaia. A traditional midwife who nurtures his patients with massage and also a baker who refuses to rush the preparation of his dough, Maea lives a simple life in an almost-empty flat where squares on the faded walls are the only sign of the family photos that once hung there.
He's kept company by a spirit of a dead woman (Sima Urale), who refuses to let go of life and lives in the corner of his living room. Maea isn't disturbed by his guest, unlike estranged daughter IIisa (Adams), who unexpectedly arrives at his house, beaten and pregnant.
This is a film in no rush to offer explanations or reveal its secrets, but even with its gentle pacing, it's clear Maea battles with the consequences of the man he used to be. An early encounter with a rowdy neighbour suggests Maea's hands have not always been used for tender tasks such as massaging pregnant bellies. IIisa's reluctance to communicate with her father and a clash of personalities at the bakery also reveal more about the man Maea was and the man he's trying to become.
