The Insatiable Moon

This is an excellent little film, made on a minuscule budget. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. You won't need to download a five page cheat sheet from Salon to understand it because it's just about the stuff people do to one another, good and bad, and the serendipity that sometimes results. If you liked the Japanese film Departures or the Italian film Bread and Tulips then you will probably like this. If you're a child of the Enlightment who wants everything to be explained, with Is dotted and Ts crossed then you may be disappointed because, as this film sets out to demonstrate, some things are just inexplicable.

Could Arthur (Rawiri Paratene) really have been the second son of God? Most people missed the first one – and they said he was mad, too. But Arthur knew how to find the magic in the world.

Against all odds, Rosemary and Mike Riddell have inspired a passionate cast and crew to bring us an emotional, challenging and thought- provoking tale of a slice of life at the unfamiliar margins of New Zealand society. Unfamiliar … and yet we know these characters and this setting. We recognise the cafés and offices; we've met the real estate agent; we've stepped over the homeless guy in the doorway and heard the strange mutterings of the nutter down the street. This movie is grounded in familiar territory, but it asks many questions about the nature of the divine, the meaning of mental illness, and the power of community.

Paratene's is a stand out performance. He believes in himself, and we believe him too. While drawing deeply from the well of his Maori heritage, his is a universal character. Audiences everywhere will know him. Audiences everywhere will warm to this movie. Go see it.

Review quote: "No I haven't watched the movie yet. The only thing I know about it is the synopsis and the "highly suspicious" reviews about it..." Etc. etc.

I'm an ex professional movie reviewer from the UK now living in the Czech Republic, "submissive_element"'s negative and highly suspicious 'review' suggesting all reviews are a bias from people who worked on the movie or were cast members is complete and utter twaddle.

If you aren't moved by this massively unexpected piece of brilliance, then you're probably dead. For the reviewer in question to say he hasn't even seen the film but suggest it is suspicious is, for my money, simply bad manners. The characters, story, social issues and tribulations contained therein conjour something completely unexpected and magical.

Example: A scene at a paedophiles funeral - with an open floor - where the deceased's friends and the mother of the molested suicide victims speak of the deceased will shock you and stun you for both its raw shock factor, humanity and yet balanced love, and this is not even close to being one of the most thought provoking, endearing scenes in the film.

It's hard to know what to make of the movie, but this isn't a low budget Kiwi flick, it's a huge movie that does more on so many levels than most of the worldwide celluloid output of the past few years. It may have a lower budget than many films, but I've seen movies with a lot more money pumped in to them that don't yield a fraction of the response it raised in me.

To not try and track it down is your loss. I hope "Submissive Element" is reading this review, and does so accordingly.

Incredible as it may seem, funding from the very people who should have been supporting this brilliant New Zealand film (from a book by established, best-selling author, Mike Riddell), was not forthcoming but the production team fought for it and their faith has been amply rewarded.

They may not want to thumb their noses at the short-sighted New Zealand Film Commission who ignored them but I'm quite happy to do so ! The Insatiable Moon is an award winner and you missed being part of it. Shame on you.

But if there is a message in this movie it is just that - we don't see the value, the insight and beauty of people who have been labelled mentally ill. We don't see them as people at all but as a problem, preferably ignored, certainly underfunded, usually scorned.

Arthur is convinced he's the second son of God and during the course of the movie, the audience moves from the easy, dismissive laughter at such a claim, to the idea that he just might be right.

Although a New Zealand film - and one of an increasing number of top quality productions from this country - the story will resonate in any society.

In every community there are those whose inability to cope with lifes's mental strains has relegated them to the background, even the scrapheap. But this movie shows that if we have the courage to think outside the square, with insight and perception, we will surely hear and see great truths.

A moving, beautiful, happy film with a message for everyone. Don't be like the New Zealand Film Commission and turn your back on something potentially wonderful. The forgotten people are forgotten no more thanks to The Insatiable Moon. Bravo.

Something completely different from New Zealand; a cross between "One Flea Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and "Being There" although not as good as either of them but still watchable nonetheless.

Arthur(Rawiri Paratene) lives in a home for the mentally handicapped and he is convinced that he

is the second son of God. Those around him are not quite sure due to his uncanny intuitiveness. By the end of this imaginative film, the audience will also question the sanity of Arthur.

Rawiri Paratene gives a remarkable performance, one of my favorites this year along with Brendan

Gleeson in "The Guard" from Ireland.

The entire cast is very good and the story moves along, straddling the line between comedy and

drama. Writer Mark Riddell keeps us guessing to the end.