Many of those attending in Manukau, in southern Auckland, said they had never seen a film at the theater entirely in their language before.

Several of the families there came from nearby Manurewa, a district usually in the news for unemployment, homelessness and poverty. Parents entering the theater said they relished the chance for their children to see themselves and their language reflected on the big screen, in a different kind of story that they hoped would instill pride in being Maori.

And it seemed to work. Jay-Dean Knox-Cassidy and Phoenix-Nevaeh Durham-Gray, both 10 (and cousins), were among the first to arrive. They had learned the language at kohanga reo, immersion preschools, and still spoke it sometimes at home.

In line, they spotted a few of their preschool teachers, including Lillian Shelford, who said that many of the children there were former students. She said that when she started working at the preschool in 1994, she did not speak the language herself and was embarrassed and shy about trying. Like many Maori of the baby boomer generation, she had been discouraged from speaking it when she was younger.

It is a common story in New Zealand. Mr. Piripi, 60, the former head of New Zealand’s Maori Language Commission, said the loss of native language and culture began in earnest after the British missionary Samuel Marsden began preaching Christianity in New Zealand in 1814.

In 1840, Maori leaders and representatives of the British crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand. It was intended to bring the two parties together in New Zealand, but breaches of it and inconsistencies in translation have caused conflict.