A Rotuman Actress Shines In ‘The Land Has Eyes’

By Floyd K. Takeuchi
Photo: Grace Niska Atkins

It is early on a Saturday morning in Suva, Fiji. The young woman on the telephone is talking about her role as the leading lady of the first feature film shot in Fiji that was produced and directed by Pacific Islanders. As she discusses how she learned how to reach down inside to find the inspiration to cry on direction, she's drowned out by the sound of chickens crowing and children screaming.

This is reality for Sapeta Taito, the now 17-year-old from Rotuma who is about to become a movie star. There's little if any of the trappings of Hollywood glamour for Taito, now a scholarship student at the University of the South Pacific. And despite warm reviews for her role as Viki in "The Land Has Eyes," Taito has no interest in pursuing a film career, at least not now. She wants to become a doctor.

"Maybe I'll do acting (again) after I am a surgeon," Taito says with the confidence of youth.

Of course, that may change if "The Land Has Eyes" continues to receive rave reviews at major international film festivals. The latest showing will be in Honolulu, when "The Land Has Eyes" is screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival on April 8th. This follows the film's huge success earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and Rotterdam International Film Festival, and precedes its screening at the Moscow International Film Festival in June. Indeed, the film's director, Vilsoni Hereniko, and his wife Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, who co-produced the film along with Corey Tong, are turning down more film festival invitations than they are accepting.

The film's most important screening may take place in June, when Taito and the Herenikos, head to Rotuma to show "The Land Has Eyes." More than 100 Rotumans have roles in the film, a few are speaking parts, many act in crowd scenes at a wedding or funeral. Taito says her friends don't think of her as a star. But they've been talking a lot about the film's debut in Rotuma. "They're very excited about it," Taito says.

Taito is unaffected by the buzz that's building around "The Land Has Eyes." Vilsoni Hereniko calls the fellow Rotuman "very bright," very much the character she plays on screen: sensitive, intelligent, devoted to her father and family, grounded in the traditions and language of Rotuma, an island that is part of the Republic of Fiji, but whose Polynesian culture is markedly different from heavily Melanesian-influenced Fiji.

"She was out of school for about five months," Hereniko notes. "But when we were done, she was able to catch up and she graduated first in her class."

In "The Land has Eyes," Vilsoni Hereniko tells his own story through the persona of a young woman. It is the tale, told in the context of Rotuman culture and mythology, of a smart young Rotuman who searches for how to balance her cultural upbringing with her ambitions and intellectual curiosity. The story challenges some facets of Rotuman culture, but concludes with Viki, the character Taito plays, understanding that she must fulfill her destiny alone, strengthened with the knowledge that in the end "the land"-or heart of Rotuma-will right all wrongs.

It is remarkable that Taito even was considered for the role. At first, Hereniko despaired of finding an actress who could play the role of Viki. He traveled to Rotuma to hold auditions at Rotuma High School. Taito, a student there at the time, was told by her teacher to go to "auditions" for a film.

"I didn't know what 'audition' meant," recalls Taito. But once she saw what Hereniko was asking of students, she read for the part. And she didn't make much of an impression on the director.

"I didn't identify her as a possibility the first time," says Hereniko. It was his wife, co-producer Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, who suggested he look again at Taito.

"Oh, what about that girl," Paulson Hereniko said as she looked at videos taken at the auditions. "She looks like she might be good. Look at those big eyes!" Hereniko remembers his wife telling him.

A couple of months later, on his return to Rotuma, Hereniko met again with Taito. It all clicked. "She didn't need to do much to get into the role," he says. "And the camera loves her."

While Hereniko believes Taito has a natural gift for acting, he also realizes that she quickly understood what drove Viki. "It was probably easier for her to act out the role because she lives that life," Hereniko says.

"She is the oldest of three children of Jioji and Mue Taito. She's particularly close to her father," Hereniko says. "She has two younger brothers."

Taito's close relationship with her father helped her get through the role's most difficult challenge. She was required to cry on cue, something Taito found extremely difficult. Viki was responding to the death of Hapati, her father figure in the film.

Then Hereniko told her to think about how she would feel if her real father had died. After that, tears were no problem, she says.

Despite warm reviews for her role as leading lady in ‘The Land Has Eyes’, Sapeta Taito says her aim is to be a doctor.

The easiest part of acting was when she had to chase pigs. That, says Taito, came naturally.

The Herenikos will continue to take "The Land Has Eyes" on the road for the next year. There are no shortage of invitations to film festivals. But Vilsoni Hereniko, a noted playwright who is also a professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, also knows that there will be no shortage of challenges to getting wide distribution for his debut feature film.

Beyond the film's clear artistic accomplishment-it was well received at the Sundance Festival, for example-"The Land Has Eyes" also is a rallying cry to other Pacific filmmakers. Hereniko's drive to complete the film, which was done on a small budget under US$1 million, was to "stretch me artistically." "The Land Has Eyes" received major funding from Pacific Islanders in Communications, a non-profit group that supports public broadcast programming by and about Pacific Islanders.

Hereniko knows that there are many more Pacific stories to tell, and Pacific Islanders need to tell these stories.

"The time has come for Pacific Islanders to be not just consumers of other people's images of themselves," Hereniko says.

Hawaii International Spring Film Festival
April 8, 8:30 p.m. at

Signature Dole Cannery Theatres
"The Land Has Eyes" will be the closing film at this year's festival. The screening is being co-sponsored with Pacific Islanders in Communications and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawaii-Manoa.

For More Information
www.thelandhaseyes.com

http://www.pacificislands.cc/