Gaysorn Thavat

A detective recovering from amnesia caused by a shocking car accident begins to suspect not everything is as it seems, following the reappearance of a young boy.

When a storm washes a canoe bearing an infant boy ashore upon a small South Pacific island, he is at first well-received as a gift from the heavens, even to the point of the tribal chief adopting him as a successor. However, with time as hardships are blamed upon Tama (as he is named), he is finally outcast to live with the poorest people on the island, Mahana and her drunken father. Mahana is considered homely and undesirable, but Tama feels differently, so when he is old enough to build a craft to sail away, he vows to return for her one day. A lucky stroke brings him to land upon the island of the legendary Johnny Lingo, the wealthiest trader in the islands, and after years of service to him, Tama has learned much about life and himself as he dreams of honoring his pledge to Mahana.

Bunny King is a mother of two, a rough cut diamond with a sketchy past. While battling the system to reunite with her children, a confrontation leads her to take her niece Tonyah under her wing. With the world against her and Tonyah, Bunny’s battle has just begun.

Initially rejected because of its taboo prodding outrageous content by NZIFF Shorts programmers, the film was however supported by Producer/Programmer/Filmmaker Ant Timpson who selected it to play in his Incredibly Strange section of the Festival. Thereafter Brave Donkey became an International Festival success incl. SXSW, BFI London, Locarno and Melbourne.