A touch of flamboyance

Miki Magasiva fell in love with film at an early age and has finally launched a debut feature that takes a tragi-comic look at grief and families.

- MICHELE HEWITSON

At the Hawai'i International Film Festival in October, where his debut feature film Tinā (Mother) opened, Miki Magasiva went for what he called his "pretty fruity" look.

Pretty fruity? Let's go for full-on fruity. The suit fabric was silky and movie-starry. It was very purple, with hundreds of multicoloured daisies. The bottom half was a lavalava. He accessorised with flower leis and the ula fala, the red necklace made, appropriately, from the fruits of the pandanus tree. It is impossible to do it justice. Let's just go for saying it is fabulously over the top and he looks fabulously flamboyant in it.

He looks capable of mischief. He isn't. He says, disappointingly, while pretending to be disappointed in himself, that he always wanted to be a rebel but never achieved that particular goal. He has always been a "goody-two-shoes".

He says he got lots of compliments at the Hawai'i do. Except from his family, who were "completely embarrassed".

He decided to wear the get-up again for the film's New Zealand premiere at the Civic in Auckland on February 11. Not an easy decision, though. He was tossing up whether to wear it again: "I don't want to look like the cheap guy, you know. I've got a reputation to uphold now."

He would like me to portray him as a "blowhard". Good try. He says he has always been the "goody-two-shoes" in a family of five boys. He adds, mock morosely, "I am, you know, Mr Nice Guy. Everybody hates me."

That outfit notwithstanding, he is not a fabulously flamboyant character. Hmm. There is the title-page picture on his website. He is bare-chested, standing in the sea and holding aloft a goldfish in a plastic bag. It is a mad and decidedly weird portrait. It was taken for a calendar in which directors and producers were asked to pose with their pet. He didn't have a pet, so he went and bought that poor goldfish. It is a parody tribute to American actor Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman.