AllMovie

Though an earlier film was made in Papua, New Guinea under Australian auspices (Australia governed the country until 1975), this is the first genuinely homegrown feature film to come out of that very new country. Thus, whatever its shortcomings, it is a landmark event. The story concerns the adventures of Papa, who owns a "private motor vehicle," PMV for short, which he uses as a taxi. These adventures take him all over the island country. In one notable series of events, he and a buddy travel around taking a politician from one village to another to make speeches. As word of the politician's ways gets around, the audiences for these speeches grow smaller and smaller. Papa returns to his home village when word of a tribal battle comes to him, complete with spears, bows and arrows, and war dances. He also has to cope with his daughter's intention to marry whom she chooses, rather than submit to an arranged marriage. This film was intended for local audiences, and its dialogue is in native dialects and in the local (and difficult to understand) variant of English.