NZIFF: Short Film "The Return"

THE RETURN

When Lupesina answers her ancestors’ call, she must find acceptance of herself, or risk being stuck in the inbetween.

Tapping lures Lupesina (Samoan/European, 20s) to a Samoan Woman receiving a malu (Samoan tattoos) from a Samoan Tattoist, face buried in her work. When Lupesina can’t speak Samoan, the women reject her, so she leaves and finds a painting of Le Fafā (The Gateway) featuring a moonlit ocean lapping against rocks. 

Mesmerised as the painting comes alive, she is distracted by children’s laughter which she follows to a bedroom where her mother holds vigil over an unseen person. Lupesina confronts her for not teaching her enough and her mother leaves. Lupesina pursues her but is transplanted into childhood memories of bullying experiences. After confronting a woman who mocks her mother, she returns to a dead painting. 

Charging back through a door she experiences warped versions of previous memories. Panicking, she invokes her mother and stumbles into the previous bedroom encounter with her mother and another version of herself. They leave and Lupesina sits beside the bed, revealing her dead self. 

Anxiety grows and she races after her mother but meets the Samoan women who shunned her instead. Furious, she confronts the Samoan Tattooist who turns and reveals another version of herself. Devastated she is her own antagonist, Lupesina finds the strength to take the tattooing tool and leaves, defiant. 

At the top of the hallway, a door opens to Le Fafā (The Gateway). Lupesina exits through the doorway with a malu tapped on to her legs from the inside out. She leaps into the ocean toward her return home.

Writer / Director: Marina Alofagia McCartney

Producers: Alex Lovell & Eldon Booth

Executive Producer: Marina Alofagia McCartney

Director of Photography: Andrew McGeorge (NZCS)

Editor: Alex Boyd

Production Designer: Emily Mafile’o

Art Director: Glenn Blomfield

Costume Design: Liz Laupepa

Sound Design: Tom Scott-Toft

Visual Effects: OHUfx 

Featuring:

Vaimaila Urale-Baker

Katerina Fatupaito

Milly Trelease

Louise Tu’u

Made in association with: 

The New Zealand Film Commission, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and The Film Collaborative