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Writer/director Katie Wolfe adapts Witi Ihimaera's novel Nights in the Gardens of Spain for the screen to tell the tale of a successful New Zealand husband and father who realizes he will have to come out of the closet as a homosexual in order to take his father's place at the head of the family. As his father prepares for retirement, Kawariki (Calvin Tuteao) realizes that the time has come for him to honor Maori tradition by becoming the man of the household. But Kawariki values his integrity, and realizes that in order to keep it he must confess his homosexuality to his family no matter how much his culture frowns on it. Meanwhile, when Kawariki's mother catches him in the arms of a handsome male actor, she banishes her son as he struggles to choose between following his heart, or claiming his birthright.