Click here to listen to the interview.
Making MĀRAMA wasn’t just a way for Taratoa Stappard to share Māori history with the world, it was also a way for him to get more in touch with his mother’s Māori heritage. It was one of the topics we covered when we spoke via Zoom on May 8, 2026.
We started with how fate might have been behind the film getting made before moving on to the magnificent Ariana Osborne, who plays the title character with a quiet strength, and commanding presence; how red figures in the creation story, and why a dress can be a weapon.
In his feature film directorial, Stappard sets the action in 1859 England, where the title character, AKA Mary, confronts colonialism on its own turf, and discovers that oppression can take many forms. The film is visceral experience of horror where the supernatural is not the terror’s true source, and self-delusion can infect the world with its condescending benevolence and casual cruelty.
Stappard may not have had a studio budget, but you would never guess it by how the film looks. Using shadow and light, as well as performances that are etched in fire and acid, he has created a mystical and engrossing piece of cinema that resonates far beyond the time and place in which it is set.
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