Prime number rocks
Poi E: The Story of Our Song (G) 93 mins
The joy delivered by the catchy tune, space invader wah-wahs and a photographically naive music video almost makes Poi E a precursor to Pharrell’s Happy for sheer toe-tapability and upliftingness of spirit. But listen, it’s just a song.
The vast majority of those who toe-tap and sing along don’t even know the words (let alone what the Te Reo Maori lyrics are saying).
So what on earth made Poi E the incredible hit that went on to be the biggest seller of 1984 (outdoing even international artists) and worthy of a documentary three decades later? Two words: Dalvanius Prime.
The Taranaki lad with a superstar name (not, as it turns out, a nod to the Transformers) was forging a soul-singing career in Australia during the 1970s when someone advised him to stop ‘‘trying to be black’’ and to go home and find his own Polynesian sound.
Prime returned to his native Patea and its famed cultural group, and the rest, as they say, is pop history.
Fusing traditional Maori waiata with synthesiser tropes, Poi E became the nation’s favourite song – and even garnered international acclaim (being performed on British children’s TV programme Blue Peter and in front of the Queen).
After his local drama Mt Zion (a popular, but mostly slight Kiwi feature about a young Pukekohe lad following his musical dreams), director Tearepa Kahi keeps to his chosen genre, but outdoes his previous efforts in both characterisation and storytelling: archive Super-8 footage takes us back to the olden days of Aotearoa, while interviews with
Fusing traditional Maori waiata with synthesiser tropes, Poi E became the nation's favourite song.
everyone from Patea’s freezing workers to Prime’s own relatives set the scene and tell us about the man.
Poi E: The Story of Our Song was heralded ‘‘the Kiwi feel-good movie of the year’’ as it opened the New Zealand International Film Festival, and while in truth we’re halfway through the film before it really brings the feels, as soon as Dalvanius and his crew are heading to Auckland to record their single, the story takes off and every detail is fascinating, moving and ultimately enchanting. – Sarah Watt