Director: Jane Campion
Country of origin: Australia-New Zealand
Year of release: 1993
Running time: 122'
Language: English, Maori, Sign Language, with English subtitles
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, The Piano is the story of Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter, in an Academy Award-winning role), a mute Scotswoman who is married off by her father to Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill), a New Zealand frontiersman. Ada is sent out to her new home with her young daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin, who also won an Academy Award), and her piano.
Ada is forced to leave the piano on the beach by her new husband, who claims there is no space for it in their house. Stewart then makes a deal with Baines (Harvey Keitel), a European who has taken on many of the indigenous Maori ways, to give Baines the piano and playing lessons from Ada, in exchange for some land.
Furious, Ada goes along with the scheme in order to be near her beloved instrument. Soon she is drawn into an affair with Baines. Stewart finds out about the affair, and makes Ada vow not to see Baines again. But then Stewart discovers, through Flora, that Ada is actually in love with Baines—a discovery that will have profound consequences.
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