TE AROHA O AOTEAROA – FOR LOVERS
My film is intended to emphasize the sensuality of New Zealand’s beauty using landscape images in conjunction with text, music and choreography from the spiritual background of both the Maori and European peoples (the mythical story of Papatuanuku and Ranginui, and the beautiful poetry of the Old Testament’s Song of Songs with the dancing Shulamite and her Lover) – both represented by two young Maori dancers (choreography by, and with permission of, Tanemahuta Gray; music, Tiki Taane). The photos in this presentation were taken from my own travels in New Zealand.
CAST: MAIDEN & YOUTH
FADE IN:
PRE-DAWN SKY:
The Southern Cross, beginning to fade into a dawn horizon over a hilly coastline (alternative, a range of hills or mountains).
MUSIC. VOICES of MAIDEN and YOUTH blending in with the MUSIC throughout.
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“Who is that rising like the morning star…clear as the moon…bright as the blazing sun…turn your eyes away, for they dazzle me…”
Sun rises in a blaze of clouds, the coastline (or hills/mountains) is superimposed with the MAIDEN’S supine body, her face upturned. The face of the YOUTH blends with the disc of the rising sun. Maiden’s eyes open and she looks up at him in longing. As the sun rises , his face stoops to kiss her and she raises a hand to caress his face.
YOUTH (V.O.)
“Make me drunk with your kisses, for your love is better than wine.”
DISSOLVE TO:
COASTAL HILLS LIT BY THE MORNING SUN:
Maiden’s body overlaid; pan as she moves, rising out of the hills, reaching up to the youth’s image in the clouds as he reaches toward her.
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“Awake, north wind! Oh, south wind come, breathe upon my garden…”
DISSOLVE TO:
Camera pan over hills, into valleys, over meadows where flocks of sheep are grazing. Fade Maiden into this setting, dancing joyfully in/over landscape.
YOUTH (V.O.)
“Loveliest of women, if you lose your way, follow in the tracks of the sheep…”
DISSOLVE TO:
ORCHARD WITH ROWS OF TREES
Moving camera. Maiden fades into landscape among the trees, throws herself down panting into the shade of an apricot tree, gazing up. Follow her gaze to overhanging branches, sunlight through the leaves. Overlay face of Youth gazing back at her. Open out to Youth, full body. He has ‘become’ the tree – his head and curly hair in its midst, his outspread arms in the branches, his body the trunk. He plucks a fruit, lays down beside her, coming ‘out of’ the tree; he places the fruit to her lips, she bites into it.
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“…and my beloved among the young men is a branching apricot tree in the wood…in that shade I have often lingered, tasting the fruit…”
DISSOLVE TO:
A VINEYARD LIT BY AFTERNOON SUN
Overview closing in on Maiden and Youth, dancing/chasing each other laughing around the grape-heavy vines.
In rapid sucession:
YOUTH (V.O.)
“Catch us the foxes…”
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“…the quick little foxes…”
YOUTH (V.O.)
“…that raid our vineyards now when the vines are in blossom…”
Youth and Maiden on opposite sides of a vine; she reaches through, offering a bunch of dark grapes. CLOSE IN ON FACES. Youth bites into grapes and her fingers. Suddenly the sky darkens and he is gone.
CUT TO:
SKY OF STORM CLOUDS, THE SOUND OF THUNDER, MUSIC BECOMES HARSH
CUT TO:
MAIDEN’S FACE
She is frightened. Open out and she is surrounded by bare craggy hills. FACES OF MAORI WARRIORS appear out of the rocks, threatening. HAKA MUSIC. She turns to flee, but their faces follow her.
SERIES OF CUTS:
MAIDEN TURNING FRANTICALLY, EACH TIME TO A DIFFERENT STORM-DARKEND LANDSCAPE
FACES OF WARRIORS WHEREVER SHE TURNS, COMING OUT OF THE LANDSCAPE WITH STICKS
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“Then the watchmen found me…they beat me, they bruised me, they tore the shawl from my shoulders, those watchmen of the walls…”
CUT TO:
YOUTH WATCHING HER FROM AMONG THE CLOUDS. HE SPREADS HIS HANDS.
DISSOLVE TO:
AERIAL VIEW: MOUNTAINS BETWEEN QUEENSTOWN AND MILFORD SOUND.
Clouds moving in the sky gradually lighten to become a golden late afternoon. Camera moves around both landscape and Lovers. Youth still among clouds (over-blend), watching mountains pass by.
YOUTH (V.O.)
“My Dove in the clefts of the rock, in the shadow of the cliff, let me see you…”
Youth sees Maiden lying exhausted in the cleft of the rock by a crystal lake. She ‘senses’ his presence, opens her eyes and ‘grows’ until she can cup the lake in her hands; she ‘offers’ it to him and he ‘stoops’ from clouds to drink from her hands.
YOUTH (V.O.)
“…you are all beautiful, my love…you are…a well of living waters…”
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“…my beloved is milk and wine. His head is burnished gold, the mane of his hair black as the raven…”
DISSOLVE TO:
VIEW OVER LAKE WAKATIPU TO THE MOUNTAINS
Sun setting gradually, brilliantly between the mountains. Maiden’s and Youth’s faces in profile silhouette, facing one another; the sunset glows on their faces, slowly fading to dusk. They raise glasses of wine between them that glow blood red in the fading light; they sip and kiss.
MAIDEN (V.O.)
“Before the day breathes, before the shadows of night are gone, run away my love, be like a wild stag on the jagged mountains!”
The Lovers’ lips part and he runs from her (camera following him), dancing/running over the surface of the lake into the fading light, looking back in longing.
CUT TO:
MAIDEN (HALF BODY) IN FADING LIGHT, WATCHING AFTER HIM
Maiden stretches her hand out to his dwindling figure. Light slowly fades. Her eyes become stars in a star strewn sky.
YOUTH (V.O.)
“…you are all beautiful…”
FADE TO BLACK
THE END