Cancer victim to NZ movie star
26 Aug 2009
The 13-year-old lead star of The Strength of Water, due to hit New Zealand cinemas this week, has his own real life story to tell involving the harrowing path from cancer victim to world screen.
Hato Paparoa, who plays Kimi - a 10 year old twin living on a chicken farm in the isolated far north of New Zealand - was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease at the age of five and given less than a year to live.
Once a Child Cancer campaign face in New Zealand, Hato’s characterful expression now graces the giant screen in a film that has already been a hit at world film festivals and nominated for several awards.
The Strength of Water
Described as "haunting and beautiful", The Strength of Water is a German - New Zealand co-production, directed by New Zealander Armagan Ballantyne, and written by award-winning Kiwi playwright Briar Grace-Smith.
It has screened at festivals around the world including Cannes, Seattle, Shanghai, Berlin, Sydney, Rotterdam and Kosmorama-Trondeim in Norway.
The film has also received seven nominations for the Qantas film and television awards in New Zealand.
The Strength of Water takes place in a small Māori community, and uses local inhabitants instead of professional actors.
It was filmed in the picturesque Hokianga region of New Zealand’s far north, around the settlements of Panguru, Mitimiti and Pawarenga.
Bethell’s Beach and Anawhata in West Auckland also feature in the movie.
Kimi’s strength of character
In the film, Hato plays Kimi - a character quite similar to himself - who is a young boy surviving in the face of adversity.
But the red carpet at Berlinale in Berlin, where Hato’s only complaint was a sore arm from signing too many autographs, is a long way from the children's cancer ward in New Zealand where he battled fourth-stage Hodgkin’s Disease.
Hato’s parents, who both worked and were heavily involved in their other five children's schooling, sports and their community, dropped everything to move to Auckland's Starship children's hospital where Hato received 24-hour care, chemotherapy and white-cell transplants.
After a two-year battle, he was given the nod to return home to Motuti in the Hokianga.
Finding Hato
While he was acting as a gofer for his father at a beach race in Hokianga, Hato was spotted by The Strength of Water casting director Suzanne McAleer.
She knew right away that the energetic 10-year-old was the film's Kimi, but it was not as simple as signing him up on the spot as the family moved away before the auditions.
More than 1000 children auditioned for the movie, but McAleer says she couldn’t shake the image of Hato, and finally tracked the family down in Hawke’s Bay, on the North Island’s east coast.
Hato was asked to attend an audition in Auckland, and after a quick interview was cast as Kimi.
Melanie Mayall-Nahi, who played Kimi's sister Melody, was also cast in Auckland, and ironically turned out to be one of Hato's real-life cousins.
Home on the Hokianga
Both Hato and Melanie are from the Hokianga Harbour, have a lot of sisters they are close to, and admit they love food.
Hato says he easily slipped into the character of Kimi.
"It was pretty easy to get into the emotions because I was like Kimi, Kimi was like me, we had both done the same things."
Despite the long hours, and being put off hot dogs for life after eating 54 for a scene that ended up being cut from the film, Hato hopes to continue acting.
He said it was pretty embarrassing watching himself on screen but he loved the buzz of the opening in Berlin.
Debut feature film
The Strength of Water is the debut feature film from director Armagan Ballantyne.
It is also the first for playwright Briar Grace-Smith who workshopped with Ballantyne at the Sundance directors’ and screenwriters’ labs in Utah, and the Amsterdam Binger Filmlab.
The film features death, domestic drama, sex, violence, romance, a ferocious dog, a chicken called Aroha (love) and some ghostly magic.
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Northland region
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