Rapa Nui (film)

RapaNui is a 1994 film directed by Kevin Reynolds and coproduced by Kevin Costner, who starred in Reynoldss previous film, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves 1991. The plot is based on Rapanui legends of Easter Island, Chile, in particular the race for the sooty terns egg in the Birdman Cult.

There are two classes of people Long Ears and Short Ears. Long Ears, marked by large wooden plugs in their earlobes and a certain tattoo, are the ruling class. The workingclass Short Ears have no ear plugs and a different tattoo. Young men from each Long Ear tribe compete in the annual Birdman Competition. The winners tribe gets to rule the island for a year.Arikimau has been the Birdman Island King foryears. He has a conviction that one day the gods will arrive in a great white canoe and take him to heaven. His advisor tells him to build more and bigger moai statues to curry favor with the gods and encourage them to come sooner. Arikimau petulantly rejects the latest statuewhich stands overfeet tallas too small. The Short Ear workers are forced to build an even bigger statue in an impossibly short amount of time. The kings advisor ruthlessly enforces the rules and status quo by publicly killing a Short Ear fisherman who had accidentally caught a taboo fish. ........

Source: Wikipedia