Highly recommended "Next Goal Wins"...

 

Got the chance to finally watch the movie "Next Goal Wins" directed by NZ's critically acclaimed Director Taika Waititi. It's a movie that I've been anticipating to watch since last year but in all the busyness of the end of the year, I wasn't able to watch it until returning back from Samoa.

I wanted to take my children to watch it with me so we finally pooled our schedule and found some time during the holiday to watch it together and it was definitely worth the wait. In fact, I'd definitely highly recommend it as a family movie to watch together despite some of the stereotypes that it does portray.

After the movie we went to catch a bite to eat at the local Denny's and got to debrief about the movie and it got positive results from all four of us. Especially in its portrayal of American Samoa although I must say that there were scenes that didn't quite match the location i.e. some of those scenes looked like they were shot in Oahu, Hawaii (one of the airport scenes) and possibly NZ with some of the grassy soccer field scenes? ha ha - just too much green grass for Samoa with the trees in the background.

We were particularly happy with the positive positioning of fafafine i.e. Samoa's third gender which we thought was well portrayed but also sensitive in the sense of some of the difficulties that they face and try to overcome within the various worlds.

I'd definitely watch it again, and would like to thank Taika Waititi for bringing this story of American Samoa to the light. It is an underdog story but it also shows some of the sacrifices that individuals living on a small island make when wanting to play on an international field.

I'm so glad that I was able to take my family a few years ago to visit American Samoa in that they were able to see the differences with Upolu/Savaii or Samoa as it is now known. The American accent was one of the first differences that they became aware of and then the use of the American dollar although they are only a territory.

Hopefully, it's a movie that can encourage more of our diaspora (living outside of the motherland) Samoans to visit Samoa and/or American Samoa to see where their ancestors came from and to hear and see the Samoan language and culture in action. Much like this movie portrays...