River Queen

New Zealand, 1868. Sarah O’Brien (Samantha Morton) has grown up among soldiers in a frontier garrison on Te Awa Nui – the Great River. Too young, and pregnant by a Maori boy, she gives birth to a son. Seven years later, her son, Boy, is kidnapped by his Maori grandfather.

Abandoned by her soldier father (Stephen Rea), Sarah’s life becomes a search for her son. Her only friend, Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland) is a broken-down soldier without the means to help her.

Lured to the ill rebel chief Te Kai Po’s village by the chance to see her child, Sarah finds herself falling in love with Boy’s uncle, Wiremu (Cliff Curtis) and increasingly drawn to the village way of life.

Using medical skills she learned from her father, Sarah heals Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) and begins to reconcile with her son (Rawiri Pene). But her idyllic time at the village is shattered when she realizes that she has healed the chief only to hear him declare war on the Colonials – men she feels are her friends, her only family. Her desperation deepens when she realizes that Boy intends to prove himself in war, refusing to go back down river with her.

As the conflict escalates Sarah finds herself at the centre of the storm, torn by the love she feels for Boy and Wiremu and the attachments she still has to the European world.

And when the moment comes, Sarah must choose where she belongs; will she go back to her European way of life, or will she follow her son into the Maori ways?