New Zealand gothic thriller Mārama is one of 17 official selections for this year’s Berlinale Coproduction Market.
Produced by Sweetshop & Green, writer/director Taratoa Stappard’s debut feature script follows a young Māori woman in 1859 as she is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire. Once there, she uncovers the horrific truth of her colonial heritage and seeks to destroy the titled Englishman who has devastated her family.
The concept has already received BFI Early Development Funding and was selected for the imagineNATIVE 2020 Indigenous Screenwriting Intensive, with Stappard also taking part in the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2021 Writers’ Studio.
The London-based director, who is of English and Māori descent, previously worked with Sweetshop & Green on Taumanu, a 1 x 22-minute supernatural thriller episode that formed part of TVNZ’s 2022 anthology of supernatural, indigenous stories, Beyond the Veil.
He has also directed six shorts that have won numerous awards and screened in festivals including Angers Premiers Plans, Berlin British Shorts, Busan, Edinburgh, BFI London, and Māoriland, while also having been acquired for broadcast on the BBC, Film4, SVT and Canal+.
Mārama producer Sharlene George told IF she was excited to bring Stappard’s work in front to the international market.
“We are thrilled to be selected for the co-production market in Berlin 2023 with writer/director Taratoa Stappard and our feature film Mārama,” she said
“It is an honour for us to bring this Indigenous story to such a prestigious international festival.”
A total of 33 film projects from 26 countries will be presented to coproduction and financing partners at the market, which will take place February 18-22.