Short film | Drama | German premiere | 2023 | New Zealand | 12 min | English with German subtitles | Directed by Mia Blake
This screening will take place at Colosseum.
Synopsis
In a dreary Department of Welfare NZ (DWNZ) office, case manager Ahorangi (Aho) takes a deep breath to collect herself before another day in the office begins.
Aho finds her working place challenging. She doesn’t agree with the way her supervisor, Debs, treats their clients, but she loves helping people in need so she keeps trying to work within the system, to fix the system.
The lack of privacy in the office makes things ten times harder. Aho can hear everything going on in Debs’ next door cubicle. She hears her embarrass Kayla, and now, whilst Aho makes real progress with her own troubled client Amber, she hears Debs antagonise Kahu and his support person Caine. Aho tries to ignore it but when Debs threatens to call the police she finds herself in the middle of an altercation desperately trying to convince Caine to back down.
All odds seem stacked against Caine but when Kayla unexpectedly convinces the group they could work together to blame this situation on Debs, and issue some payback of their own, Aho makes a life altering decision to stand by her clients and bring down her boss.
Director’s Bio
Born in Nuku’alofa, to a Scottish Mother and a Tongan Father who met at medical school in Fiji, Mia has always loved an interesting story line. With 25+ years as an actress of both the stage and screen, Mia is now relishing being on the other side of the camera.
In 2019 Mia was mentored by Peter Burger and Danny Mulheron as a shadow director during the 1st Season of the dark episodic thriller One Lane Bridge.
Following this Mia was selected as a trainee director for New Zealand’s most popular soap opera, Shortland Street. Mia subsequently went on to become one of their full time directors and now has over 100+ episodes of the award winning show under her belt.
In 2023 the National Drama School of NZ, Toi Whakaari, selected Mia to be one of three directors in their prestigious film project. Mia was thrilled and jumped at the chance to work with young emerging actors and to branch out into the world of film.
This is Mia’s first writing credit but definitely not her last. She continues to develop more of her own work, with a keen interest in social justice issues as well as stories that represent her mixed Tongan, Kiwi and Scottish heritage.