Essay

The land has eyes, is a story of Rotuman society where mythical believes are a huge part of their life. Viki, the main character, idolizes her father Hapati, a story teller who narrates to her the story of Warrior Woman whom the Rotuman’s believe to be their most powerful and righteous being that preserves justice among Rotuman women. This essay will be based on the film “The Land has Eyes” which is about injustice, disgrace, retribution and redemption. The film is basically an autobiographical, that is it is about the life of the director itself, Professor Vilsoni Hereniko (Wertheimer, 2005).

The film opens with the voice of Hapati, narrating the story about how the warrior women, Tafate Masain, came into existence. Along with this, the soundtrack of Rotuman song differentiates this film to all the other movies, that is, it creates a Pacific ideology in the minds of the audience this also creates a classical theme of film and provides an image of Pacific Culture and enables the audience to experience the life of Rotuman culture through their eyes. The story revolves around two cultural groups the Rotuman and the British colony.

According to the Director, Professor Vilsoni Hereniko, the characters in the film were all Rotumans except for the warrior woman (Rena Owen) who was a Maori (Hereniko, 2012). According to this information, acting in the Rotuman lifestyle would not be of any difficult to these actors, therefore either with or without camera crew, living in ones own tradition or lifestyle would come naturally to that person. Even though certain action might come naturally, some disgustful actions are revolting, for example, the scene where Tafate Masain gets sexually abused by her brother and I felt even more disgust for the brother when Tafate Masain gave birth, but I deeply empathize for her and I admire her courage and will to struggle and survive alone on the deserted island. I also empathize with Viki, whose situation was very much similar to the...