O Tamaiti

I thought the film that we viewed about the Samoan family was heart breaking because of it being so true to life. Many children in Samoan families expirience this, as they tend to have many brothers and sisters that need care but no one to be there to care for them, leading them to having to run the family themselfs.

The fact that there was no spoken dialogue in the film gave it an edge, which put emphasis on the sound used in the film. Even where there was use of dialogue between the parents and the children, it was spoken in Samoan, without dubbing or subtitles so that we would concentrate more on the audio features of the film. This helped to push the idea that there was nobody of parental age around to be there in the family to help the kids when they needed it. The parents mostly kept to themselfs.

At the start of the film the boys echoeing footsteps, coin slotting into the machine, and the brother complaining about the coke (without spoken word) gave an eerie emptiness to the films mood. Where were the parents? What were the children doing waiting out in a hospital corridoor? The mere suggestion that the older brother had to form a parental role between him and his siblings came from the coke that he had provided for them and shared around. it prortrayed the idea that they all had to fend for themselfs in the world, since they had no one to depend on. And as we then hear the cries of a baby, and see the unsatisfied look apon the older brothers face, we realise then, that there is yet another to be added to the family, to be looked after by the rest of the children.
As we later find out about the baby's passing, it is gut wrenching to think that all of those kids could just as easilly end up like their baby sibling, from being unsupervised. If one were to fall, who would be out there to help? Nobody. No one.