Tania (Sophie Henderson, who also scripted) is a Maori on the inside despite her blonde hair and blue eyes, in contrast to her younger brother Piwakawaka (Jahalis Ngamotu) whose darker features she envies. Taking are of her diabetic mother (Beth Kayes) by day and working at a gas station convenience store with her uncle Rog (Stephen Lovatt) by night, Tania is saving up money for her and Pi to take a trip to Surfer's Paradise to find their absent father (Tammy Davis, WHALE RIDER). Tania is left alone when Pi decides to go to Paeroa for the season to pick and pack kiwis with his trouble-making mate Bigman (Vinnie Bennett). While Tania forms a tentative attraction with uptight regional manager Dean (Jarod Rawiri, JINX SISTER) - who takes offense at Tania's use of Maori diction while denying his own heritage - Pi follows Big Man along on a series of burglaries and gets hooked on heroin. Tania's attempts to save him from his mates and tense interactions with other Maori contemporaries (including a former Kapa Haka classmate who reminds her that they always put her in the back of the room because she was white) make her feel even more estranged from what she considers her heritage. The titular FANTAIL is a bird associated with death in Maori mythology in which Maui attempts to overcome death by passing through the body of the sleeping goddess of death only for the cheeky little bird's laughter to waken her and snap him in half with her thighs; and that myth plays into the climax when one of the film's players tries to be a hero despite admonishments to the contrary to and by that character.