Production Underway On Māori Gothic Horror, Mārama

(Auckland, New Zealand) Production on a new genre-bending gothic horror feature film MĀRAMA, from Māori writer-director Taratoa Stappard (Taumanu, Emkhatsini), is now underway in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Set in North Yorkshire, Victorian England, 1859, MĀRAMA is the story of a young Māori woman’s fight to reclaim her identity and indigenous culture.

“This film will be confronting, bloody and entirely unique, and I’m excited to be forging a new genre: Māori Gothic Horror,” says NZ-born Stappard, who lives in the UK and whose lineage includes Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Tuwharetoa iwi (Māori tribes).

The film features Māori actor Ariāna Osborne (Madam, In A Flash) in a breakout lead role, alongside British actors Toby Stephens (Black Sails, Die Another Day, Percy Jackson and The Olympians) who has recently wrapped principal photography on the project. The cast also stars Umi Myers (Bob Marley: One Love, Dope Girls) along with New Zealanders Erroll Shand (Savage, The Luminaries) and Jordan Mooney (The Bluff, Pike River).

MĀRAMA is produced by Sharlene George (Taumanu, Testify, Birds Eye View), co-CEO and Founding Partner of international production company The Sweetshop.  George emphasizes the importance of MĀRAMA in the current cinematic landscape: “We are bringing something truly different to the screen because this film is both a cultural statement as well as a fusion of distinct story worlds that rarely intersect. I couldn’t be happier that we are shooting and doing all our post-production here in Aotearoa to anchor the story on the whenua (land).”

The film’s other producers are Rickylee Russell-Waipuka (Taumanu, The Untold Tales of Tūteremoana), Rouzie Hassanova (Radiogram, Song for Serbia) with Paraone Gloyne as Pou Tiaki Reo & Tikanga (Māori Language & Culture Producer).  Executive Producers include Victoria Dabbs, Gal Greenspan for Sweetshop Entertainment, Jill Macnab and Phil Bremner for Vendetta Films and Badie Ali, Hamza Ali and Greg Newman for MPI Media.

MĀRAMA was developed with support from Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga/the New Zealand Film Commission, imagineNATIVE, The Black List, Toronto I.F.F., Zurich I.F.F., and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The film is being made in association with the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, Whakaata Māori and Images & Sound.  MPI International will manage global sales with Vendetta Films distributing the film in Australia and New Zealand.

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