Princess Kaiulani (2009)

"A must-see!  Pete Hammond, BACKSTAGE
"A lush, poetically crafted portrait of Hawaii and the woman who championed her people.  Prairie Miller, NEWSBLAZE

Editor's Note The incredible true story of Hawaiian princess Ka'iulani (Q'orianka Kilcher) comes to the screen in this historical drama from first time writer/director Marc Forby. The year is 1888; a rebel alliance with connections to the American government has succeeded in destabilizing Hawaii. When the fight comes to the royal palace, 13-year-old heir to the throne Princess Ka'iulani is spirited away to Victorian England -- where her royalty holds no bearing on her social standing. As Princess Ka'iulani struggles to adapt to her new surroundings, she finds herself falling in love with handsome, rebellious young Englishman Clive Davies (Shaun Evans). Four years later, the princess receives word that the queen has been incarcerated, and the monarch has fallen. In time Princess Ka'iulani realizes that in order to save her people she must give up her romance with Clive, and travel to America in order to speak with President Grover Cleveland. Convinced that she can restore her kingdom by proving to the Americans that her people are not the savage barbarians that the press portrays them to be, the princess makes her way to the United States and wages a valiant fight against the grave injustices being inflicted upon native Hawaiians.

	Julian Glover
	Jimmy Yuill
	Barry Pepper
	Shaun Evans
	Q'Orianka Kilcher
	Tazmin Merchant - Co-Star
	Will Patton - Co-Star
	Gabriel Beristain - Director of Photography
	Stephen Warbeck - Composer
	Marc Forby - Screenwriter
	Marc Forby - Director

Chicago Sun-Times
"[With] a wealth of Hawaiian locations that make the film effortlessly authentic....In production values, the film is flawless." 05/19/2010

Hollywood Reporter
"[A] stirring romantic drama....Cinematography, production design, costumes and music smoothly converge for an impressive period effect." 05/07/2010

Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
In the late 19th century, American corporations backed by U.S. Marines overthrew the legitimate monarchy of Hawaii. One of the conspirators was Sanford B. Dole, of pineapple fame. Princess Kaiulani, niece of King David Kalakaua, was in England at the time, getting a thorough Victorian education. After Kalakaua's death, Queen Liliuokalani became his successor to the throne and resisted the outsiders. Then Kaiulani returned and took up the doomed struggle...Princess Kaiulani is much remembered in Hawaii, much forgotten on the mainland, and the subject of this interesting but creaky biopic. She (played here by Q'orianka Kilcher) was the child of a Hawaiian mother who died when she was young and a Scottish father, Archibald Cleghorn (Jimmy Yuill). It was he who feared his daughter's life was in danger from the Americans, returned her to Britain and to the household of his friend Theo Davies (Julian Glover). In the U.K., she attended a rigorous boarding school, where there was some rudeness but the children of foreign royalty were not unknown. And she fell in love with the Davies' son, Clive (Shaun Evans)...Princess Kaiulani shows the European business community conspiring against King David's efforts to secure Hawaiians' title to their own land, and indeed rights were stripped away, and the Doles and other white families converted much of Hawaii into their own private plantation. The film's treatment of these results seems somewhat muted; more drama would have been welcome...Kilcher seems an intriguing Kaiulani, as she was a Pocahontas. Of Peruvian and Swiss descent, she was raised in Hawaii, was a hula dancer by 5 and by 6 a student of classical voice at the University of Hawaii. Unlike a standard starlet, she evokes great depth and sympathy in her role and seems to have created Kaiulani from the inside out. That she has admired the character since childhood is a help. It's a shame more help didn't come from greater passion in the filmmaking. - Roger Ebert