Voyage 02 · Dark Fantasy Feature
In colonial Samoa, a grieving boy is drawn into his people’s resistance against foreign rule, where an ancient power offers hope of freedom but at a cost more than he understands.
Premise
Children of the Mau is a mythic historical animated feature set in colonial Samoa, following a young boy whose family tragedy draws him into the Mau movement’s peaceful struggle for independence and a hidden world of ancient spirits, gods and forbidden power. Blending Pacific mythology with real history, the film offers an emotionally driven coming-of-age story about resistance, identity and sacrifice, told through a culturally specific world with strong international audience appeal and the visual scale of a premium animated fantasy.
World & Characters
A fiercely loyal Samoan boy whose grief awakens a courage greater than his thirst for vengeance.
A spirited, perceptive girl whose sheltered world begins to fracture when she sees the human cost of colonial rule.
An ancient red-dog spirit bound by duty, whose growing love for Tu‘ia drives him to defy the gods.
New Zealand governed Samoa with the paternalistic conviction that it knew what was best for a people it dismissed as “a splendid but backward Native race.”
A vengeful, shapeshifting spirit who has secretly engineered Tu‘ia’s journey, using grief, prophecy and forbidden power to set her larger plan in motion.
