Tinā
Anapela Polataivao plays Mareta Percival, a Samoan New Zealander and primary school teacher whose daughter is killed during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Overcome by grief, Mareta struggles to make sense of her life, until she accepts a job as a substitute teacher at St Francis, a conservative private school. Mareta takes on the role of choirmaster, bonding with her students and preparing them to compete in the Big Sing contest. But she runs foul of a dominant clique in the school, which believes the choir detracts from St Francis’s elite rugby program. Will Mareta and her choir prevail, or will vested interests prevent her and her team from achieving their goal? ‘Underpinning everything … is a humane spirit and sheer good-naturedness that warms the cockles.’ The Guardian