The Banff Centre presents:

The Dead Lands

Wednesday, July 13, 2016 @ 7:30 PM
The Club, Theatre Complex, The Banff Centre - 107 Tunnel Mountain Dr, BANFF, AB
FREE Admission

Part of Indigenous Arts' Hi-Rez film screening series, The Dead Lands is set in pre-colonial New Zealand — known to its inhabitants as "Te Ao Maori" (the Maori World) — The Dead Lands is a dazzling action epic. After his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery, the chieftain's teenage son Hongi sets out to avenge his father so that he may bring peace to the souls of his lost loved ones. Vastly outnumbered by a band of villains, led by Wirepa (Te Kohe Tuhaka), Hongi’s only hope is to pass through the feared and forbidden Dead Lands and forge an uneasy alliance with the mysterious "Warrior" (Lawrence Makoare), a ruthless fighter who has ruled the area for years. The Dead Lands is the first film ever to feature Mau rakau, the traditional Maori martial art of armed combat.

The Dead Lands is set in a time when Maori were the only human beings in their environment - the land now known as New Zealand or Aotearoa. It was Te Ao Maori, the Maori World and New Zealand was the whole world. Perhaps 500-600 years ago. It was long before contact with Europeans and colonization. It was a tribal society, with complex and shifting relationships of allies and enemies. Intertribal warfare involved the skilled use of deadly handheld weapons. There were battle rituals, codes of honor, and dignity or shame in death.

This film is rated R for brutal violence. Doors 7 p.m.  

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