Sweetshop & Green’s supernatural thriller, Taumana, will premiere on TVNZ 2 at 9:30pm on Monday March 7.
Taumanu was written and directed by Taratoa Stappard and funded by NZ On Air & Te Māngai Paho for TVNZ. It will be the first of six stand-alone stories to air for the new series, Beyond The Veil. It is also Stappard’s TV debut.
The episode was produced by Sweetshop & Green’s co-managing director, Sharlene George, with Sweetshop & Green’s Rickylee Russell-Waipuka as associate producer and Nicola Smith as Line Producer.
Taumanu is set in New Zealand in 1929. When a parcel is delivered to a colonial manor house, mysterious Māori twins arrive to reclaim the contents and the head butler, Tīpene, finds himself drawn into the bloody, avenging climax of a century of utu.
Sharlene George stated, “Taumanu is a provocative Māori story that touches on unpleasant parts of history, which may challenge some of our audience. But this story of reclamation showcases a stellar cast, cinematically portrayed in Aotearoa 1929.”
Taratoa Stappard added, “I was enormously excited when my script, Taumanu, was selected for production. I first pitched the idea at Māoriland 2019 and three years later I’m making my TV debut with Taumanu screening as the opening episode of the TVNZ anthology series, Beyond the Veil. It was a privilege and a pleasure to work with an incredible cast and crew, including several exceptional wāhine toa heads of departments and their teams.
“I wanted Taumanu to be both shocking and captivating; a story that makes audiences sit up, lean in and then wonder what just hit them. It was inspired by the awesome stories of my female tūpuna and it touches directly on sensitive nerves, addressing contemporary kaupapa around histories of colonization and cultural appropriation.”
The episode has been made with support from NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho, and with development funding from the NZ Film Commission, NZ On Air and TVNZ.
Stappard will also be working with Sweetshop & Green on two subsequent projects; Mārama, a Māori revenge horror set in Victorian England, 1869, and a TV series based on the further adventures of the lead characters of Taumanu.
All six episodes of Beyond the Veil will be made available on TVNZ OnDemand.
Credits
Written & Directed by Taratoa Stappard
Produced By Sharlene George, Gal Greenspan, Sweetshop & Green
Line Producer: Nicola Smith
Associate Producer: Rickylee Russell-Waipuka
DOP: Ginny Loane
Casting Director: Christina Asher
Production Designer: Riria Lee
Costume Design: Barbara Darragh, Lucy Danner
Hair & Make-Up: Amanda Ashton
Editor: Richard Shaw
Composers: Karl Steven & Rob Thorne
Sound Design: Nigel Foster
Post production: Toybox NZ
Cast
Niwa Whatuira (Cousins, Maui’s Hook) As Tīpene,
Edmund Eramiha (Vegas, Dead Lands) As Te Pakanga,
Rickylee Russell (Vegas, Boy) As Te Haeata,
Rita-Lee Peihopa In Her Tv Debut As Mārama,
Tania Nolan (Ncis, Head High) As Lady Cole,
Peter Mccauley (One Lane Bridge, The Brokenwood Mysteries) as Sir Jonathan Cole
