Cousins

What I enjoyed most of all was having the opportunity to be on-set during production where there was a joyful whānau atmosphere, and where the only raised voice was when it was time to 'cut'.

– Cousins author Patricia Grace on the making of the film, in a 21 January 2021 press release

An understated, yet emotion-filled tale of love and loss, of identity and the institutions that try to deny and reshape it and of the power of whānau, all magnificently played out by a fabulous ensemble of homegrown actors of all ages.

– Ccritic James Croot in a four-and-a-half star review, Stuff website, 4 March 2021

From now on there's to be no more contact with the Māori family. I am her legal guardian.

– Mrs Parkinson (Sylvia Rands) on taking over care for Mata

Shot mostly in close-up with a sensuous, lyrical grace by DP [director of photography] Raymond Edwards, the film is never more gorgeous than when on location in Rotorua, where the Pairama clan lives. Moving deftly between eras, the cutting by Angela Boyd creates a rhythm of circling and repetition that serves the story well.

– Variety critic Alissa Simon in a review of the film, 3 August 2021

It was one of the most beautiful film scripts I’d ever read. It was tragic that Merata’s film was never made, but for us it just forms part of the whakapapa of the film — not the content of it, but the spirit of it.

– Co-director Ainsley Gardiner on the original Cousins script, by Patricia Grace and Merata Mita, The Spinoff, 8 March 2021