REVIEW: The brutally honest Orator

Review of The Orator (O Le Tulafale), written and directed by Tusi Tamasese

Abstract

Review of The Orator (O Le Tulafale), written and directed by Tusi Tamasese. Apia: Samoa, 2011. 1hr 50min. theoratorfilm.co.nz

‘You know why women don’t want to be Orators, because they don’t want to show their breasts in public.’ This is how Samoan High Chief Tagaloa spoke, squinting through his leathery brown skin framed by a light trim of siga (white hair) as he spoke to Saili, the main actor in the feature film The Orator. When this was said, my 8-year-old nephew Barry Uelese Sapatu nudged me in the Magik Cinema in Apia and said: ‘But aunty, Grandma is an orator, and she doesn’t show her breasts in public, or does she?’