River Queen is a 2005 New Zealand film directed by Vincent Ward and starring Samantha Morton, Kiefer Sutherland and Cliff Curtis. The film opened to mixed reviews but performed well at the local box-office. The film takes place in New Zealand in 1868 during Titokowaru's War between the Māori and New Zealand colonial forces. Sarah O'Brien has grown up among soldiers in a frontier garrison on Te Awa Nui, the Great River. Pregnant at 16 by a young Maori boy, she gives birth to a son. When, 7 years later, her son, Boy, is kidnapped by his Maori grandfather, Sarah is distraught. Abandoned by... her soldier father, Sarah's life becomes a search for her son. Her only friend, Doyle is a broken-down soldier without the means to help her. Lured to the ill rebel chief Te Kai Po's village by the chance to see her child, Sarah finds herself falling in love with Boy's uncle, Wiremu and increasingly drawn to the village way of life. Using medical skills she learned from her father, Sarah heals Te Kai Po and begins to reconcile with her son .
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