As Romeo and Juliet had been the original inspiration behind my story, it seemed fitting to include a couple of homages to William Shakespeare in my script. When Hunapo’s father Maahanga is mad that Hunapo intends to go through with the arranged marriage to Aroha, he shouts “God’s bread it makes me sick”. This line, considered very risqué in Shakespeare’s time, comes when Juliet’s father Capulet disowns Juliet for not agreeing to the arranged marriage he has set up for her with County Paris. An interesting inverse parallel to the situation in my film.

My second homage is a paraphrasing of Mercutio’s immortal line “A plague on both your houses”. Maahanga is a lone and dissenting voice at the Marae ceremony and mutters to himself: “Curse you both, you have brought shame to the whānau.”

Today’s podcast video features these two clips in a rough cut assembly.