As a drama about a woman (Ariana Osborne) who's travelled from the distant New Zealand all the way to England, Marama attempts to tell a meaningful story. But as soon as blood and carnage are thrown at us at a frenetic pace, the developing horror takes away from the gothic mood and spooky production design. When the heroine uses a shovel to decapitate someone who's harmed her family members, I wasn't sure what the filmmakers were thinking.
Marama rides the politically correct wave about a NZ native who's suffered mental and physical damage on the hands of captors/colonizers with whom few will be able to sympathize. As a result, audiences may side with the heroine at any cost, regardless of how absurd. Also, at not even 90 minutes, Marama is too short for its own good; another twenty could've gone a long way to turn the audience towards her plight. This is a darkly photographed, often times nice to look at, morally uncompromising mess.
☆☆
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