Mārama
A Film by Taratoa Stappard
New Zealand — 2025 — 89 min — Gothic Horror / Historical Drama With Ariāna Osborne, Toby Stephens, Umi Myers, Erroll Shand, Jordan Mooney Screenplay: Taratoa Stappard — Production: The Sweetshop — North American Distribution: Dark Sky Films / Watermelon Pictures In English and Te Reo Māori
Synopsis
England, 1859. Mary Stevens, a young Māori woman, makes the journey alone from Aotearoa New Zealand to North Yorkshire, drawn by a letter promising answers about her family. At Hawkser Manor, she is welcomed by Sir Nathaniel Cole — a former South Seas whaler with a conspicuous fascination for Māori culture. Accepting a position as governess, Mary begins to experience visions steeped in her own history. The manor’s walls are lined with stolen treasures, and the truth behind Cole’s interest in her is darker than she imagined.
LONG METRAGE SÉANCE SPECIALE
About the Film
Mārama is gothic horror with a purpose. Built from slow dread rather than cheap shocks, it uses the conventions of the haunted house film to explore something more real and more terrifying: the violence of colonialism, and the way it lingers in objects, in bloodlines, in silence. Taratoa Stappard — born of an English father and a Māori mother — draws on his own whakapapa to tell this story, and the film carries that personal weight in every frame. Ariāna Osborne’s performance anchors it: a woman moving from passive observer to empowered Māori wahine, reclaiming her name, her identity, and her right to utu.
Taratoa Stappard
A Māori filmmaker from Hawera, Aotearoa New Zealand, Taratoa Stappard has directed six short films screened at festivals including BFI London and Māoriland, and a half-hour film, Taumanu (Reclaim) (2021). Mārama is his debut feature, developed with support from the New Zealand Film Commission, imagineNATIVE, The Black List, and the Berlinale Co-Production Market. He has described it as the first film in a planned trilogy of Māori gothic horror stories about colonial violence met with Indigenous retribution.
Festival Run
- World Premiere — Toronto International Film Festival 2025, Discovery
- Selections — AFI Fest, Fantastic Fest, Sitges, Palm Springs International Film Festival
- Official Selection — FIJA 2026 — Feature Films, Paris