| Director | Vincent Ward |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 109 min |
| Country | New Zealand, United Kingdom |
| Budget | $24 million |
| Box office | $915,442 |
The film takes place in New Zealand in 1868 during Tītokowaru's War phase of the New Zealand Wars between the Māori and New Zealand colonial forces. Sarah O'Brien (Samantha Morton) has grown up among soldiers in a frontier garrison on Te Awa Nui, the Great River. Pregnant at 16 by a young Māori boy, she gives birth to a son. Sarah was distraught when her son named Boy, is kidnapped by his Māori grandfather seven years later. Abandoned by her soldier father, Sarah's life revolved around the search for her son. Her only friend, Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland) is a broken-down soldier without the means to help her.
She was lured to the ill rebel chief Te Kai Po's village for a chance to see her child, Sarah found herself falling in love with Boy's uncle, Wiremu (Cliff Curtis) and increasingly drawn to the village way of life.
Using the medical skills she learned from her father, Sarah heals Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) and began to reconcile with her son (Rawiri Pene). But her idyllic time at the village is shattered when she realised that she has healed the chief only to hear him declare war on the Colonials—the men she identifies as her friends, her only family. Her desperation deepened when she found out that Boy intends to prove himself in the war, refusing to go back down river with her. As the conflict escalates, Sarah finds herself at the centre of the storm, torn by the love she feels for Boy and Wiremu, anguished over the attachments she still has to the white man's world, and sickened by the brutality she witnessed on either side.
And when the moment comes, Sarah must choose where she truly belongs. Will she be forced back into the white man's way of life, or will she have the courage to follow the instincts that are telling her to remain where she belongs?