The next Waititi short is Tama Tu, a 17 minute long look at the Maori soldiers in hiding during war. Rather than focusing on the violent action side of war, or the sad consequences of it, Tama Tu finds a small quiet moment. In this moment, it presents humor and emotion in a moderate way, similar to Jojo Rabbit. It does this through a brilliant use of lack of dialogue. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any conversations, as the characters interact through facial expressions. This allows for some funny moments. Even without dialogue, the characters are clear and distinct. It also plays out, more or less, in real time. Using long wide tracking shots that give the impression that this is a real event. But, at it’s heart, Tama Tu pays a great homage to all of the indigenous people who died in war, and it shows the humanity of everything happening. While it is still relatively low quality production, the look is clearly on a higher budget that Two Cars, One Night. In general, I actually like this one slightly more than Two Cars. Both have their merits, but I feel that Tama Tu plays into that balance Waititi presents in his feature films quite well. 8.2/10
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