🌲Review - "The Seekers" (1954) dir. Ken Annakin🌎

'The Seekers' is a British, Colonial epic set, and partially filmed in, New Zealand. It is one of the few foreign films (or films in general) to be made in or about NZ during that period. 

The verson I watched had suffered from colour deterioration, making some scenes hard to see. 

Story wise, it was watchable, but dated. 

As expected from a colonial piece, the New Zealand landscape and the Maori culture are on exhibition - almost fetishised. The introduction notes that the NZ government arranged for the co-operation of Maori tribes to make the film. A claim which seems paternalistic, also weird,  considering the main Maori actor, Inia Te Wiata, was based in London.  

An awareness of History seemed not to be important. The Maori fight the settlers using spears, not Muskets. The look of the Pakeha settlment resembles the American frontier more than the Antipodes. The landscape as shot at Pinewood studios looked different from the scenes in NZ. 

Overall, the Seekers is an all right film, but it's interest is more important as a document of how "the south seas" were perceived in the mid 20th century and as a rear example of a (partially) New Zealand film, rather than a timeless movie.