| A SYNOPSIS FOR A FEATURE FILM FROM THE NOVEL "MOKO" BY MAUI DALVANIUS PRIME |
| Fame, wealth and power have not, for two centuries, been able to release the Phillips family from the curse that is on them. |
| James Phillips, young heir to the family's business interests, is fascinated by grandfather Sir Clive Phillips world-renowned ethnological collection from the South Seas which was started by the original Sir James Phillips early in the 19th century. The young James is always happy to spend part of each year with his wife, Pania, and the two children on the family's New Zealand sheep and deer ranch, "Pounamu" |
| But his Grandfather, Sir Clive, is less than happy about this affection for "Pounamu" and has never favoured James' wife, Pania. It was in London that James met and married Pania, the mother of his two children. A part-Maori, Pania is herself a successful businesswoman-designer, haute-couture salon owner, and a leading agent for artists and models. |
| When Pania wears a greenstone (Jade) pendant she has borrowed from Sir Clive's collection, she generates ominous vibrations that alert James to a fear that the demons of ill fortune that he thought he had dispelled by marrying Pania are still able to endanger his family.. |
| Sir Clive dies suddenly in an accident, with head injuries not unlike those that have afflicted all of the male ancestors of the family. Inheriting the Phillips fortune and the hereditary title, James - now Sir James - recognises the resurgent strength of the curse, and decides to fight it. |
| Only in the past can he find a clue to the mystery of his family's ill fortune; only in the present can a solution be found. |
| For two centuries ago - merciless slaughter and greed aroused the supernatural powers of the victims. Ths spoils of that early victory now lie in the secret recesses of private and museum collections of Maori artefacts and human relics. |
| Can Sir James help his wife, Pania, intervene with the demonic forces that carry the restlessness of sacred objects that have been treated with contempt? Is it within Pania's power over the past to quell a malignant search for revenge or establish a just reconciliation? |