S02E02 - The Lost Tribe: Iwi Ngaro (2002)

Director	Peter Burger
Writers	Michael Bennett
Starring	Calvin Tuteao, Ross Duncan, Scott Morrison, Phil Spencer-Harris, Clint Eruera, Craig Hill
Genre	Psycho
Tagline	The quivering
Country

Talk us through it

An old couple driving through night time rural New Zealand apparently run someone down. Stopping to investigate they are killed by an unseen assailant, and I'm picking it wasn't feral possums

In the local ranges an army unit is conducting training. Their commanding officer lands via helicopter to inform the troops training is off the agenda and it's now live ammunition as they will be sweeping the local bush for a fugitive who they are warned is armed and dangerous.

Sergeant Tu Peters decides the first course of action is to link up with the rest of his squad in a nearby valley and then conduct their sweep. On the bright side of the assault rifle he has Swanky Smith, a local Scottish park ranger who speaks fluent Maori, along for the festivities. Our band of brothers soon discover the missing squad has been massacred in a pretty gruesome display of carnage. Peters decides to spend the night right where they are and then get out of dodge at first light.

Ready to go bush and face what might be hiding in the scrub?

Review

Director Peter Burger ripped one through my defences and clean bowled me with The Lost Tribe. One of the best episodes yet of Mataku. It had me howling at the moon, giving my invisible friend high fives, and handing out a standing ovation. Okay so I was pretty much up for this one and am still buzzing over the deal sent my way by Burger. Television doesn't get much better than this friends and neighbours, unless you want to spend a million and more per episode and blind people by science rather than quality. Guess I should back this up before regular readers wonder if I'm off my meds again.

First the lesson for the day, unfortunately not from Maori mythology this time, more an urban legend. The basis of the story of The Lost Tribe comes from reports dating back to early colonial times of people seeing tall Maori Warriors on the fringes of coastal forests down the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Reports came from diverse and reputable sources yet no evidence of a Tribe could be found in the areas where the Warriors were spotted. Hence the belief arose that there is a lost tribe still inhabiting unexplored regions down South. Believe it or not the truth is out there. Actually I reckon they all headed down to Fiord land where they were gobbled up by a local taniwha.

Director Peter Burger opens his episode with a brief prologue piece that adds the motivation for the rest of the episode and helps establish the isolated location the episode goes down in. An old couple are driving late at night through some pretty primeval looking bush. Long shots establish the road isn't travelled much at this time of night and it's hemmed in by native forests. While bickering over the radio and it's subsequent drop into static the couple hit someone unseen on the road. They stop to see if they can help the victim and are dispatched pretty quickly by our as yet unseen assailant.

The Director doesn't hang around to see if moss grows over a rolling stone, he's more interested in racketing up the tension and keeping it moving toward an unexpected conclusion.

Outstanding use of quick cutting to bring the car accident into focus. It's chaotic with a number of images being rapid fired on the screen, including an excellent glimpse of one glaring eye. This wham bam thank you mam approach only ever works if the Director has a firm hand on his/her movie, Burger has The Lost Tribe rolling over and playing dead.

The Director next cuts to the actual bush, which for those unaware is particularly dense in New Zealand naturally reducing visibility, a crucial plot point used to perfection by Burger during the course of the episode. In one of those shoots that are sure to bring a smile to most viewers faces a squad of soldiers suddenly appear out of the landscape, cool use of camouflage there.

Burger is all over this episode and nails about every single aspect of it as he not only tells a pretty good yarn but adds in a theme for good measure. At times I was thinking the Director was heavily influenced by Neil Marshal's Dog Soldiers, the quick cuts and barely seen antagonist, and at other times by Predator, the heavy atmosphere and the feeling that something unseen is out there, followed by quick action that barely disturbs the tranquillity of the forest. It's breath taking stuff and Peter Burger slices every ounce of tension out of it that he can.

This episode could have proved to be very claustrophobic but somehow the Director avoids fencing us in, ironically through an almost stage like presentation of major scenes. As stated above the Kiwi bush can be incredibly dense reducing visibility down to the here and now. During the middle of the episode events go down during the night and in the final section there's a morning mist, visibility is further reduced. Director Burger needs this approach to keep his antagonist off screen and a barely glimpse threat during the majority of the episode. Finally a modern Director who has enough smarts to keep his major ace up his sleeve till we are nearly at the closing credits. Due to lack of depth shots the Director is forced to spend a lot of time with close-ups and set scenes that are static in nature. This works surprisingly well as we have the feeling that the squad of soldiers are cut off and Burger allows the full drama of the situation to flow. Swanky Smith is intrigued by a legend the old folks have about a lost Iwi, Sergeant Tu Peters simply wants to get the remanets of his command out in one piece. There's tension between the two men and neither is absolutely correct in his individual stance.

The resolution of the episode might leave some viewers with a bemused look on their face, but I rather enjoyed the slight detour into fantasy as it helped explain some of the obvious issues we would otherwise have with the episode.

Calvin Tuteao (Sergeant Tu Peters) is simply a perfect casting choice, once and still are warriors came to mind, Tuteao sold me the whole deal. If they need a dude to lead the troops in the remake of Predator then Tuteao is that man. Ross Duncan (Swanky Stevens) ably backs up Tuteao and offers a convincing performance as a park ranger in a strange land.

Our old friend Hirini Melbourne delivers once again with the traditional Maori instruments. Kipa Royal and Frank Marinthe send the soundtrack our way but for once I didn't note it as I was too engrossed with the story being told. We also get "Reptile Room" Pitch Black.

Summary Execution

Channel 3 finally got back to me about season three with what amounted to a shrug and a go ask Aro, (local DVD place), approach. Talk about your lack of promotion of local material, figure ScaryMinds is doing more in our small corner of the net than the combine advertising power of a major television network. Will try Aro and see if they have any plans for a release.

Well guess you would have figured by now it would be a full on recommendation, chocolate dipped, with sprinkles on the top. Don't be a mug, go grab a viewing of this episode to see what can be achieved with a minimum budget and some talent. Join the tribe folks you wont forget it.

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