The third in a trilogy of films raising the voices of women (after Waru (2017) and Vai (2019)), Kāinga (or home) gives us eight short films each focusing on a girl or woman from an Asian country trying to find her place in Aotearoa New Zealand. The connection between them, as the stories span decades, is the same house on 11 Rua Road where they all live or visit.

Each film has a different director and there is scant information available online so my apologies if I don’t credit the creators thoroughly. The directors are Michelle Ang, Julie Zhu, Ghazaleh Golbahksh, HASH, Asuka Sylvie, Yamin Tun, Angeline Loo and Nahyeon Lee.

Some of the stories are more engaging than others and so I will focus on the ones that stayed with me. It opens strongly with Aho (Mya Williamson), a story of a young tween who must translate and mediate between her Maori grandmother and her grandfather‘s Chinese daughter. Williamson is remarkable, apparently cast just four days before filming started when the original star caught COVID. It’s a perfect short film, telling you everything you need to know in the mise en scène and through Williamson’s strong performance.

Mikasa uses metaphors of encroaching waves and a mysterious floating capsule to show us the isolation and depression of the titular character (Izumi Sugihara), a young mother isolated from her family and culture. The story is inspired by the director’s mother who raised two young children on an isolated Aotearoa island after her husband lost his sight. The floating capsule is based on a Japanese legend of the ‘hollow ship’ and represents acceptance amidst hardship.

Candy is all colour and chaos as a Filipino den mother (Patricia Senocbit) supports and chastises a house full of nurse trainees. Its powerful ending seems to speak of parental disappointment but the director explained in a post-film Q&A that it represents Filipino (and perhaps all migrant) pragmatism where Candy’s role modelling of practicality over sentimentality comes home to roost.

Soo Young is a young Korean girl (deftly portrayed by 6 year old Eliana Hwang) unable to understand why her family must leave their home, Parvati (Sneha Shetty) (remarkably directed remotely from Perth due to COVID restrictions) is a newly arrived Indian wife feeling bereft, and Parisa (Masoumeh Hesam Mahmoudinezhad) is a stroppy Iranian architect forced to work as a receptionist and longing for home. Vena (Dharshi Ponnampalam) surprises the pakeha owner of the house when she arrives with a shovel, requesting to dig up a time capsule buried by her sister.

We come full circle with the story of Eva (Katlyn Wong), set in the present day. Eva is a Kiwi with a Malaysian Chinese background struggling to settle her young baby despite the late night noise from her neighbour’s house. When she confronts them, we see the distance between the new and old migrant experience and it is a powerful moment.

Overall, the films feel tonally consistent and there are common themes of grief and cultural dissonance. The house is a subtle character in its own right, quietly transforming across the decades from 70s small rooms and hallways in earth tones to open plan living and a teal couch. Narratively, it seemingly has a remarkable turnover rate but perhaps this is just a device that represents Aotearoa as a whole. Home to many, always adapting.

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Have you seen this film? Let me know what you think?