Coverage:

A hard, powerfully acted and painful film about domestic violence and how a family's life is affected by drinking and despair. Temuera Morrison plays a charming, but often times violent alcoholic. Rena Owen plays his wife, who after years of abuse, finds the courage to stand up to her husband after the family suffers a tragedy due to Morrison's self-destructive lifestyle. Morrison's low self-esteem compounds the problem as he tries to solve things with a bottle and his fist.      Among other things, Owen blames Morrison for their oldest son joining a gang, their reclusive daughter, and their youngest son who was sent away to a boy's home.      Once Were Warriors  is a strong movie about an alcoholic world (that happens too often anywhere) where brutality can erupt at any minute-- and real life doesn't have happy endings.