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Norman Fletcher plays an New Zealand medical-school graduate of the 1940s, who, at the request of his father, pays a visit to his home town. Fletcher has a particular affinity for the local Maori population--and small wonder, since his late mother was Maori (a fact hitherto unkown to him). After a young villager dies of leukemia, Fletcher decides to forego the posh practice that had been planned for him to remain with his new-found friends. Ngati is notable as the first film to be written and directed by Maoris. Despite a few technical and performing crudities, the results are well up to the high standards of other New Zealand-based productions of the era.