Rain of the Children”; is a documentary that plays like a feature film, thanks to several historical reenactments that tell the story of Puhi, a Tuhoe tribe woman filmmaker whom Vincent Ward describes as existing between the living and the dead.

It is how she is defined by her community when they meet; he, a young filmmaker with the slimmest knowledge of New Zealand history. With this work, he has returned some 30 years later, his storytelling skills honed, to fill in details about her life that had eluded him so many years ago, particularly Puhi's belief that she was cursed.

When Ward met Puhi in 1978, she was already an old woman caring for her adult son Niki. Her fate is tied to that of her people, systematically destroyed by European settlers, if not by gun, then by the burning of their crops and Western diseases that destroyed a third of their population.

Shortly after Puhi's birth, a savior arrived in Rua Kenana, a man who had seen an angel and claimed to be the Maoris “;chosen one.”; Taking inspiration from the Old Testament, he considered the Maori to be like the Israelites and believed it was his mission to heal his people and lead them to the Promised Land.

  Rua built the first Western-style Maori community with homes, a bank, a school and a church. He set himself up as a judge in all their affairs and, to keep the peace among warring factions, claimed 12 wives from each of the rival tribes.

Puhi, played as an adult by Rena Owen, was married to Rua's oldest son and bore him a son, but the child was frequently ill, and Rua, considering her cursed, married her off to another man. She had 12 more children but they died, one by one, from typhoid, influenza and starvation, until Puhi felt she had no choice save to give five of them up to a Caucasian school teacher, believing that if they remained at home, they would die.

Historians speaking on camera examine the mindset in Puhi's time, when, lacking modern scientific knowledge, people needed an explanation for any disaster that befell them. Puhi's constant misfortune was reason to believe in the curse and to avoid her.

At 40, she married and had one more chance to raise a child when Niki arrived, but he was quiet and withdrew further into himself upon the death of his father. Puhi cared for him until her death as a penance for all she had done wrong with her life, which was nothing, save for having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is a fascinating story told in vivid detail. It is also an interesting documentary for our time, because Ward nimbly demonstrates the impact of societal, environmental and cultural change on the individual.