Let’s do a quick comparison of two films depicting Pacific people but from an indigenous perspective (directed by Tusi Tamasese) vs a westernised Yt perspective (directed by Mitch Davis)

The Orator directed by Tusi Tamasese showcases themes of Samoan culture (fa’a samoa) culture values such as family, honour and service to your people. The main character Saili endures a long journey to defend his land and family to ultimately regain his fathers chiefly status

Saili is initially portrayed as unfit to take on this status due to his physical appearances, because of this he is not seen as worthy to the elders within the village. Saili embarks on a long emotional spiritual journey to regain that part of his life and fight for it

There’s many cultural attributes added to this movie including this mourning scene aswell as customary practices within the community but it goes to show how important our culture is to us and the underlying teachings there are within our customs you can’t replicate

The other side of heaven follows the story of a young Mormon missionary enlightening and spreading the word to the people of Tonga, the white saviour complex is strife in this one also the people depicted were of RaroTONGAN descent the whole movie wasn’t even shot in Tonga

There was little nothing really looking into the lives of the Tongan people because 1. They shot this in Rarotonga and only had Cook islanders on set 2. It wasn’t important to the narrative they were trying to portray. This movie romanticises missionaries and Christianity

This movie was bland and constantly shed light on the main Yt character has being this heroic inspiring young man even going as far to depict him saving a young girl during a Typhoon. The enforced assimilation of Christianity in the pacific is still a big problem here it has been

There is alot of social cues or culturally significant changes within the film of the Orator that wouldn’t be seen of interest in the film, but it’s those little things that make up the types of relationships within the film or how the Samoan society works aswell as fa’a Samoa