Once Were Warriors (film)

Once Were Warriors is a 1994 New Zealand drama film based on New Zealand author Alan Duffs bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of the Hekes, an urban Mori family, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence, mostly brought on by the patriarch Jake. The film was directed by Lee Tamahori and stars Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison.

Jake is fired from his job and is satisfied with receiving unemployment benefit, spending most days getting drunk at the local pub with his friends, singing songs, and savagely beating any patron he considers to have stepped out of line. He often invites crowds of friends from the bar to his home for drunken parties. When his wife gets lippy at one of his parties, he brutally attacks her in front of their friends. Beth turns to drink when things go wrong, and has angry outbursts and occasional violence of her own, on a much smaller scale. Her children fend for themselves, resignedly cleaning the bloodstreaked house after their father has beat their mother.Nig, the Hekes eldest son, moves out to join a gang whose rituals include getting facial tattoos in Mori culture called t moko. He is subjected to an initiation beating by the gang members but is then embraced as a new brother, and he later sports the gangs tattoos. Nig cares about his siblings but despises his father. He is angered when his mother is beaten but deals with it by walking away. ........

Source: Wikipedia