WE WERE DANGEROUS (SXSW2024) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

We Were Dangerous, the feature directing debut from Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu, takes place in a New Zealand reform school for girls in the 1950s, reclaimed from a former leper colony.

“If it can contain leprosy, it can probably manage a few girls in heat,” says a bureaucrat assigning a matron to the task.

Designed for “incorrigible and delinquent girls,” the school takes in runaways, pregnant teens, and others labeled as sexual deviants, such as Lou (Nathalie Morris, Bump), whose doctor father sends her there once he catches her making out with her female math tutor.

Lou, who is White, becomes roommates with Nellie (Erana James, The Wilds) and the orphaned Daisy (newcomer Manaia Hall), both of Maori heritage. The latter two had the poor luck of winding up in the school after stealing food while on the streets. Thanks to a motto of “Christianize, Civilize, and Assimilate,” the girls spend most of their time learning the Bible and proper etiquette when they’re not cleaning, gardening, or cooking. The matron (Rima Te Wiata, The Wheel of Time) punishes anyone who sasses back or doesn’t speak English.

Loosely based on truth. We Were Dangerous has a lot of potential. (The press notes say the director’s father survived one of these “state care schools,” which continue to impact her family and cultural identity.) Unfortunately, it has a lack of focus and subtext.

Co-written by the director and Maddie Dai, and listing New Zealander Taika Waititi (Our Flag Means Death) among the producers, the film debuted at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. Instead of framing the action around Nellie and Daisy—or even Lou, as the newcomer—it curiously incorporates a voiceover from the matron. This is fine when describing the girls’ backgrounds, but it becomes heavy-handed as she spouts propaganda with no self-awareness.

Much of the dialogue is on the nose, and the plot tips its hand much too early, which saps the film of significant horror, drama, or suspense. As if isolating the girls isn’t enough, one of the matron’s male superiors proposes sterilizing them soon after they relocate to the island. The Scripture-quoting matron immediately agrees, assigning girls to spruce up the medical cabin, then escorting individual girls there for “treatment” at whim.

Viewers should be horrified this was an option, and with no regard for these girls or their bodily autonomy. Yet even after Nellie finds out what’s afoot, there’s a lack of fear and tension. The other girls on the island are such vague characters that we don’t become fully invested in what happens to them—or why the matron goes along with all this. The most variation in her personality is in her treatment of Lou compared to the students of color, as she notes Lou can at least “perform” properly.

As Nellie, James has some fiery moments, such as when she says that whatever she might plan to avoid what’s in store, she’s risking more than Lou, whose father would bail her out of trouble. Nellie also rightfully points out that the school isn’t training them for any decent employment or even teaching Daisy how to read, so how can it possibly say it’s doing anything for them? Yet these challenges go unanswered, and the resolution strikes a tone that’s not in line with the rest of the film.

We Were Dangerous draws attention to a rich topic, but it’s a well-intentioned misfire.