Caleb Teaupa

When a welfare department’s insidious prejudice can no longer be tolerated, a group of unlikely heroes band together against a narrow-minded caseworker.

Meet Ari, an average 20-something millennial living at home with her parents. She also happens to be an MMA fighter with a mum who doubles as her coach. Her mother, Mei, has always planned everything for Ari - her training regime and now her dating regime so she can find the perfect partner, and have the perfect baby at the perfect time in her life. In a bid to escape her overbearing mum-coach, Ari enters an illegal underground MMA fight where she manages to piss off the most dangerous man in town, James Lee. Swords, cakes and the truth go flying when they all collide at her cousin's big fat Indian wedding.

In New Zealand, a Tongan father in his seventies labours through the unchanging rhythm of construction work, long after his children have grown and moved on. As the days blur together and time slips away, he is haunted by distance, from his roots in Vava’u, Tonga, and from the family he is still trying to hold onto.