Tuhoe activist Tame Iti says playing himself was one of the hardest roles he’s tackled.
Iti plays Tame Iti in Muru, a film helmed by Poi E director Tearepa Kahi ,about the aftermath of the 2007 Tuhoe police raids.
He also helped with the scripts and was an executive producer.
He says the film aims to challenge assumptions – including the way the police made assumptions about his activities without ever coming to talk to him.
Playing himself meant having to bring up events that were traumatic.
“You had to put yourself in the zone – it actually happened to me, what the film was based around in the way the state put the cameras and their spying and listening devices, that is real,” he says.
Tame Iti says a critical part of the film was using Tuhoe reo – which meant teaching co-star cliff Curtis how to speak with a Tuhoe twang.
