The Mountain

The Mountain (2024)

Sam, a fearless young girl raised outside of her Māori culture, is determined to fulfill her mission of connecting with her mountain. She hopes it can heal her from the cancer she is battling. Along the way, she meets some misfits and new kids in town, and together they journey through a difficult route, discovering the true spirit of adventure and the magic of friendship.

Date of release
2024-03-28
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Adventure, Drama, Family, Comedy
Director
Rachel House

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Taranaki Maunga

The Mountain is a New Zealand coming-of-age comedy drama film directed by Rachel House, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tom Furniss, based on a story by Furniss. The film is about a young girl named Sam seeking to reconnect with her Māori culture with the help of her friends Mallory and Bronco, while hoping this will cure her cancer.

Production

The Mountain's script was co-written by Tom Furniss and Rachel House. The film also marked House's directorial debut. Furniss' original script centred around three Pakeha/European New Zealander boys climbing the mountain. House, who is Māori, revised the script to incorporate Māori characters, culture and stories. While Mallory remained Pakeha, Sam and Bronco were revised as Māori, with Sam becoming a girl.

While Furniss' script did not name the mountain, House chose Mount Taranaki as the film setting, saying that she "thought it was a wonderful opportunity to try and explain how we feel about our maunga (mountains)." House explained that mountains were significant to Māori culture, describing them as "ancient living ancestors who have shaped and formed our identity, belonging and connection to each other." Mount Taranaki and the surrounding peaks a…

The film featured the acting debuts of three child actors: Elizabeth Atkinson (Sam), Reuben Francis (Mallory) and Terence Daniel (Bronco). House made the deliberate decision to cast 11 year old actors, stating during an interview with The Spinoff that it was the age "just before they were about to kind of move into being rangatahi (teenagers) while they still have their ability to believe in magic, for want of a better word." House and several ca…

Supporting cast members included Troy Kingi, Byron Coll, Sukena Shah and Fern Sutherland.

Filming took place on location at Mount Taranaki with support from the local Māori iwi (tribe) Taranaki Whānui. The film was produced by Piki Films and Sandy Lane Productions. Desray Armstrong and Morgan Waru served as producers while Carthew Neal, Taika Waititi and Paul Wiegard served as executive producers. Filming lasted four weeks and concluded in mid-May 2023.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended