The dangerous in WE WERE DANGEROUS are three rebellious teen girls at a New Zealand reform school in 1954. New Zealand director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s satiric WE WERE DANGEROUS is surprising – entertaining, funny yet terrifying – as these three independent girls resist the institution’s efforts to break their spirits and break their deep bonds of friendships. At the same time, the film goes from comedy to thriller, and delves into the abuses, not just of reform schools, but other institutions of that era and earlier ones, like orphanages, mental hospitals and boarding schools for indigenous children. At the same time, this is also a coming-of-age tale of friendship with moments of searing heart-breaking and touching ones of the bonds of teen friendship.
The film opens with shot of a old painting and a voice intoning “When the British first colonized our land, we were offered a great new hope from the motherland: Christianity.” The voice continues with satiric, overblown grandeur, as the girls of the school, decked out in their black and white uniforms stream by under the framed painting, which as well zoom out, we see is much smaller than it appeared at first. The camera pans over, and we catch a glimpse of the leader of these rebellious girls, Nellie (Erana James), plotting her next escape with the help of her younger constant companion Daisy (Manaia Hall). In the next shot, we see the girls preparing for bed, as Nellie parodies the stern Matron (Rima Te Wiata), a rigid, strict, religious woman with white hair who dresses all in white. The sardonic, satiric sequence set things up perfectly for the delicious dark humor of this well-crafted film.
Sometimes you can say things more pointedly with humor than strait drama, and that is director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s aim here. WE WERE DANGEROUS is part coming-of-age adventure tale, with the rebellious unlikely “heroes” being three “bad” girls at this grim institution. They are more interested in having fun than the school’s mission to “Christianize, civilize and assimilate” their mostly Maori charges. The school claims to want to return their girls to society, but that seems largely to mean turning them into obedient domesitic servants for white families, where their highest ambition is to marry, preferably someone white.
Most of the girls at this institution are Maori or part-Maori, many street urchins and orphans picked up by the cops and delivered to this “school for delinquent girls.” That includes Nellie and her inseparable buddy, Daisy (Manaia Hall). Daisy is a younger girl who has had a hard life on the street from a very early age, never learned to read, and doesn’t know much about her Maori culture either. Nellie retains some of her Maori knowledge, and has taken in Daisy as her adopted sister/right-hand girl and partner in adventures.
The girls aren’t really bad, just more interested in having fun than being quiet and hard-working. Irrepressible, smart and smart-mouthed Nellie is also an escape artist, who we first meet plotting her next escape. Nellie’s good at escaping, always with Daisy and anyone else, but not so good at staying quiet and unnoticed so she wouldn’t be caught.
The third girl joins them after the institution’s board decides it has had enough escapes, and plans are made to relocate to a location where escape isn’t possible: a remote, uninhabited island that is a former army base with a few scattered, rundown buildings.
The Matron and her assistants gather their charges and add one more before they board the boat that will take them to their new location. The new girl, Lou (Nathalie Morris) is very different, a blonde-haired white girl from a prosperous, religious family, who sent her there after they caught her kissing her teacher, a woman. They hope she will be cured of such things.
And the boat that takes them to this new, escape-proof island home? It’s named Snark. They are traveling on the good ship Snark.
On the island, the new girl, pretty blonde Lou, does get some special treatment at first from the Matron and the staff. But that change when she moves into the tiny hut Nellie and Daisy was assigned, and she soon becomes the third member of the trio of friends. Together, the three friends defy the rules as they form strong ties of friendship.
On the island, without outsiders to looking, discipline becomes harsher and more arbitrary. More than that, there are new experimental treatments, horrifying things, that even give Matron pause. Nellie and Daisy hatch a plan to rebel but Lou is torn between fear of punishment if caught and the risks to survival if they don’t resist.
When the film reaches this chilling point, the girls’ bonds of friendship and their own resourcefulness and spirit come to the fore, threatening to break our hearts and putting us on the edge of our seats.
Of course, we can not escape being aware of the danger this girls face. The director keeps the story moving and a firm grip on the audience’s attention. Audience nerves frayed as we are whipped between horror and the indomitable, wisecracking girl at the center of this trio. The bonds of friendship between the girls come into play, a three Musketeers of boarding school, but whose bonds of friendships are tested as the abuse gets worse.
The cast is excellent, starting with … as the defiant, clever … The young people playing this girls are marvelous, and the strong script gives them plenty to work with. The characters are complexly human, even the main villain, the headmistress who, we learn in a flashback, is her self a product of an abusive orphanage
The young cast are excellent, both in the early more comic portion and the more frightening drama later part. Erana James is charmingly wild and inventive as daring Nellie, whose bonds of friendship are unshakable, and fiercely protective of Daisy. Manaia Hall is charming as little Daisy, funny and game, but prone to moment of anger when bullied by Matron. Rim Te Wiata is fascinating as brittle Matron, who we learn in a flashback is a product of one of these repressive institutions, an orphanage. In her corseted, white attitude, she projects a mindless will to crush, driven by her own buried anger and fears.
The story is set in 1954 but the time period is a bit fluid, which allows the director to explore abusive practices and “treatments” in other times and types of institutions, including a bit of eugenics.
The tension is gripping as the film moves towards its conclusion but director shows a masterful hand with the material, delivering a powerhouse ending, keeping us guessing until the last moment.
WE WERE DANGEROUS is a hard-to-categorize film but it is a heart-stopping film you won’t want to miss.
WE WERE DANGEROUS opens at the Hi Pointe Theater on Friday, May 9, 2025.
RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars
