Word: fijian
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Longstanding tensions between the Fijian government and military approached breaking point Dec. 3, as Commander Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama sent armed troops to surround the police barracks in Suva. For several days beforehand, his soldiers had been patrolling the streets of the capital, Suva, as the Commander repeated his "non-negotiable" demands that Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase resign and that his government abandon moves to exonerate perpetrators of the attempted coup...
...former Bible-belt suburb of Auckland is now a very 21st century ethnic melting pot-though that doesn't stop a tourist character in a new movie that's set there from asking, "Where is Mount Doom?" Rather than ring-seeking hobgoblins and hobbits, No. 2-about an ageing Fijian matriarch's gathering of the clan to name her successor-is filled with her kava-swigging, tree-chainsawing, pig-slaughtering grandchildren, who surf a volcano of emotions over one night and a day. It's all part of the shifting nature of New Zealand film. As Nanna Maria (Ruby...
...cult animated TV series bro'Town, a distinctly Pacific flavor is adding warmth and a sense of humor to New Zealand screen culture. "I feel like we're in the middle of a real cultural boom," says No. 2's novice director Toa Fraser, whose father hails from the Fijian gold-mining town of Vatukoula...
...winningly modest Fraser, 31, helped usher it in. Born in England, where his father was employed as a broadcaster for the BBC, Fraser migrated to Auckland when he was 14 and spent much time with his Fijian grandmother, who lived in the same Mount Roskill house until her death in 1990. While working as a cinema supervisor through the '90s, the aspiring playwright penned his aptly titled second play-and the one-woman show, with nine characters spanning three generations, proved to be the little one that roared. First performed in 1999, Fraser's love letter to his grandmother toured...
...answers with a firm but friendly Fijian yes. For Fraser, writing the original play was the beginning of his own belated Pacific homecoming. His subsequent play Paradise was set in a Fijian island resort in the weeks before the May 2000 coup attempt, and it was while in Suva on a writing residency in 2001 that Fraser began his screenplay for No. 2. "Fiji is still an enigma for me," he concedes. But "I figure I know what makes New Zealand tick these days, especially Mount Roskill." With its Pacific wave, New Zealand cinema is all the more refreshing...