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Latest Trans Additions...

  • RuPaul's Drag Race UK: Season 6
  • Their Own Life
  • Orlando, My Political Biography
  • Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda
  • Adam Lambert: Out, Loud and Proud
  • TOPS
  • Sediments
  • Sound of Scars (The)
  • Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration
  • Law of Love (The)
  • One of the Guys
  • They/Them
  • Anything's Possible
  • Beyond Ed Buck
  • Pronouns in Bio
  • Gossamer Folds
  • First Fallen (The)
  • Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor
  • Framing Agnes
  • This is Not Me
  • End of Wonderland (The)
  • Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music
  • North By Current
  • Manscaping
  • Death and Bowling
  • Garden Left Behind (The)
  • Screw
  • Sort Of
  • Adam
  • Canela
  • Titane
  • Girl Like You
  • Against the Current
  • Wolf
  • Queer Tongues
  • Rūrangi
  • Prince of Dreams
  • Out Loud
  • Advent of Maria
  • Transkids: The Movie

Rūrangi

Country: New Zealand, Language: English | Maori, 87 mins

  • Director: Max Currie
  • Writer: Oliver Page; Cole Meyers
  • Producer: Craig Gainsborough-Waring

CGiii Comment

Originally, a web series...and, not being a particularly great fan of that genre...and, accompanied by a fair amount of trepidation, we jumped on the bus to Rūrangi - so glad we did!

What a surprise...a refreshing deviation away from the commonplace trans narrative. Not a mention of binders, nothing about genitalia, surgery doesn't get a look in and the 'T' word isn't even mentioned...this is just an off-the-beaten-track, home-coming-out tale...with a wee bit of a difference.

Reconnection with your past, reconciliation with friends and family and the regrets that you have carried around for 10 years...are what Caz has got to face. Some are handled with comparative ease...some, a little more difficult...and, one which becomes the highlight of the film...really, due to Arlo Green delivering a fantastically measured performance as the awkward, endearing, befuddled, clumsy [utterly adorable] Jem - Caz's once-upon-a-school-time boyfriend...when things were just a wee bit different.

In truth, this story-line should have been the mainstay of the film...because, it does tend veer off-piste with some other unnecessary issues...thankfully, not for too long. Rūrangi is, indeed, a most welcome addition to the ever-growing canon of trans-themed films...in its own way, it has broken the familiar trans mold - this is post-transition - and, it should be duly admired and celebrated for doing so. The same has to be said for cast and crew...they have made a credible film from a web series...well, they have certainly put this web series cynic [rightfully] in his place!

Well done.


Trailer... 

 

The(ir) Blurb...

After skipping town a decade ago, transgender activist Caz Davis returns to the remote, politically divided dairy community of Rurangi, hoping to reconnect with his estranged father, who hasn't heard from him since before Caz transitioned.

Cast & Characters

Elz Carrad as Caz Davis
Arlo Green as Jem
Awahina Rose Ashby as Anahera
Kirk Torrance as Gerald Davis
Aroha Rawson as Whina
Renee Sheridan as Agnes
Ross Harper as Harry