This Way of Life
Way of Life
Celebrating the day-to-day joys of family and in particular the life-altering effects of good and bad parenting, this New Zealand documentary will engage you from its very outset.
“When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I live for a living,” says Peter Karena, the horseman/philosopher/hunter/father whose family stars in the film.
The Karenas (Peter, his wife Colleen and their six children) live in rural Hawkes Bay. The film follows them through the serious challenges that confront them in a four-year period.
Peter’s stepfather is a constant presence in the film but we see him only briefly and partially, in the aftermath of a catastrophic fire. The stepfather story is a frustration, because much is left unsaid, but it is important: Peter and Colleen’s parenting philosophy is a direct response to the upbringing Peter experienced from his stepfather.
“I treat my children the way I would have liked to have been raised,” Peter says.
The six children seem to be thriving in their simple, natural, poor circumstances. They eat venison when Peter has been hunting and they share in the process of turning the animal’s deaths into sustenance. They ride very large horses with extraordinary skill from quite a young age. They are immersed in the love of the big family and they never doubt their worth or their place.
In fact the innocent and simple nature of the upbringing she has given her children makes the saintly Colleen worry for them in the future, when the world and its sophistications may no longer be avoided.
The film moves in a gentle, measured, contemplative way, much like Peter’s mode of speech. It is visually stunning but director Tom Burstyn does not sentimentalise his subject matter. When the Karenas leave the shed they have been living in and move into a caravan for a while, there is no suggestion that their situation is at all romantic.
This Way Of Life won a special mention jury prize at the Berlin Film festival earlier this year.
It may not make a horse-whisperer or a hunter out of everyone in its audience, but This Way of Life will readily share its joyous respect for life and its sense of freedom. If you’re not charmed by the kids in this movie, check your pulse - you may not be charmable.
Neil Wilson
