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The film: “Once Were Warriors” is a deeply moving story about Jake and Beth Heke and their five children - a family in crisis. Although the story takes place in New Zealand, and the characters portray an urban Maori native family, many of the scenarios, situations and characteristics that are presented in the film are relative to our own country and culture. I found the viewing and reviewing of this film to be extremely triggering for me emotionally. Over and over again I found myself drawn back to the memories and emotions of a time when my own lifestyle reflected only too closely the events that were depicted on the screen. Time and again my fists clenched in sympathetic agony, and my stomach knotted with tension in anticipation of the next scene, which from my experience, I knew would be coming. The characters seemed so real that I could replace the names and faces with those of people I have known well; Most of whom dwell now in the place of spirits, or no doubt wish they did. I found myself contemplating deeply on the concept of duality - both the duality represented in the timeline of my own history, and the duality that the characters wrestle with in the film. The plot, with its stark ima