The Maori Merchant of Venice

The Maori Merchant of Venice is a 2002 New Zealand drama film in the Māori language (with English subtitles), directed by Don Selwyn.

The play The Merchant of Venice was translated into Māori in 1945 by Pei Te Hurinui Jones, and his translation is used for the film. It is the first Māori-language film adaptation of any of William Shakespeare's plays. The film was shot in Auckland, but "recreate[d] 16th century Venice, with costumes and surroundings to fit the original setting".

Almost all the film's actors are Māori, many of them acting for the cinema for the first time.Waihoroi Shortland stars as Hairoka (Shylock), Ngarimu Daniels as Pohia (Portia), Te Rangihau Gilbert as Patanio (Bassanio), Scott Morrison as Anatonio (Antonio) and Veeshayne Armstrong as Nerita (Nerissa).

According to the New Zealand Film Commission, the film deals with the themes of "religious discrimination, revenge for past wrongs", and "explores the nature of justice and mercy" as well as "the effect of heritage on an individual’s life decisions and the strength, wit and wisdom of women": "The Maori take on Shakespeare's 'pound of flesh' drama is a story of deep seated social and religious prejudice, in which the Jew (Shylock) has a long memory of oppression, but revenge is not so sweet." Valerie Wayne, in The Contemporary Pacific, underlined the apparent parallel drawn by the film between the oppression suffered by Shylock because of his Judaism and the sometimes violent subjugation of Māori by the colonial authorities in nineteenth century New Zealand.