Whale Rider, the 2002 film directed by Niki Caro and starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, tells the story of Castle-Hughes' Kahu Paikea Apirana, a twelve year old Maori girl with a big heart -- and even bigger dreams. Ultimately, she wants to become the chief of her tribe. However, her grandfather tells her that would not be possible because the chief role is reserved for males only. It is a story of spiritualism and a story of profound love and commitment.
At the Academy Awards that year, Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film itself received similarly positive reviews. Roger Ebert, who awarded the film 4 out of 4 stars, wrote that "The genius of the movie is the way it sidesteps all of the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes itself fresh, observant, tough and genuinely moving" and called Castle-Hughes "a movie star." Ebert also named the film one of his ten favorites of 2003. Ethan Atler of NYC Film Critic, however, didn't particularly care for the film, writing that "[He] can honestly say that there is not a single plot point or character arc depicted here that [he] ha[s] not seen a thousand times before." Also, on a budget of only $9.2 million NZ$ ($3.5 million USD), the film made back $41.1 million USD at the box office.
