Mārama

In 1859, Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne), a young Māori woman, is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire by a mysterious note. To survive, she becomes the governess Mary at Hawkser Manor under the seemingly benevolent eye of Sir Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens), a charming landowner whose fortune was forged in the South Seas.

Cole speaks her language and insists he can help her. But the walls of his home are hung with Māori taonga, and by night Mary finds herself haunted by memories that are not her own. In a bid to discover the truth about herself and Cole, Mary realises she must face a bloody reckoning if she ever wants to be free of Hawkser Manor.

“For all its real-world anguish and fictional dread, Marama never collapses beneath the weight of its own seriousness. Stappard understands that catharsis matters too, and the film’s conclusion is exhilarating.” ~Alison Foreman, IndieWire

“Neither exactly a horror movie nor a costume drama, Mārama stakes out its original narrative ground as a kind of cathartic pageant or imaginary exorcism of history’s ghosts.” ~Liam Lacey, Original-Cin