The River Queen

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RIVER QUEEN - 2005 Adventure/Action/Drama

Starring: Samantha Morton (Sarah O'brian), Kiefer Sutherland (Doyle), Cliff Curtis (Wiremu), Rawiri Pene (the boy who was abducted by his grandfather)

It was 1860 in New Zealand, the British was at war with the Maoris. Sarah & her family were Irish who settled at the bank of the river. Sarah got pregnant by a Maori native and they had a boy named Rawiri. While Sarah and her son was playing peek-a-boo her son accidentally got injured. Sarah quickly had her first aid kit ready to treat her son's wounded knee. They played again next after but then the son went missing and they cannot find him, unexpectedly they knew that her son was abducted by the grandfather but Sarah and her family don't know where to find their hideouts. Many years passed by the war between Great Britain and New Zealand heightened. Sarah and her family don't know what to do until she was abducted by Wiremu and was taken to his tribe in the very deep forest only to be asked to heal and cure the tribe's leader or chieftain of his influenza. The chieftain was cured and he was grateful of Sarah that he was hailed her as "Queenie." The chieftain's womanizing escapade didn't stop there he was notorious for such even during at the time of bloody war. Crazy man. 

By the way, Sarah found her long lost son Rawiri but her son already acquainted to the tribal life. Then the British soldiers, led by British officer and Doyle discovered the Maori's hideout and attacked them. Doyle knew that the boy is Sarah's son and didn't harm him, however Doyle got shot and Sarah had to help him and back to the British camp without her son. Unfortunately, Doyle didn't survive.

The boy was taken by the British soldiers. Wiremu had to plead for the boy's life. Anyway, long story short, The boy, Wiremu and Sarah escaped through the rushing cascading water and hid inside the cave. The British soldiers followed their trails however took more days to finally found them and shot Sarah. 

Did Sarah survive? You bet she is. It was happy ending that  Sarah, Wiremu and Rawiri moved to Ireland to have better life. 

Note: When I first saw this movie, wondering who is Samantha Morton who played Sarah. She's very familiar, saw her before don't really know for sure what movie I had seen her face. Thinking, thinking...then alas, Samantha Morton was the actress in THE WALKING DEAD zombie apocalyptic tv series who played the ruthless bald-headed woman Alpha. 

Cliff Curtis also played in the horror/apocalyptic zombie series FEAR THE WALKING DEAD.

Kiefer Sutherland is much bigger actor but his role and appearance on the screen was cut short. He is the talented actor behind movies such as FLATLINERS (with talented actress Julia Roberts), TO END ALL WARS, 24 (tv series), DESIGNATED SURVIVOR (tv series), etc.