Whale Rider

The legend is that Paikea rode on the back of a whale and led his people to New Zealand. Since that time traditon has decreed that the first-born male descendant will become chief of the tribe. Then Pai is born...and she is a girl. She grows up within a close-knit village which retains the tribes tradtional spiritual relationship with the sea and their warrior values. Although loved by all, Pai faces rejection from her grandfather who is brokenhearted that there is no grandson to carry on the line. But Pai is indeed blessed with the spiritual and leadership qualities of her ancestors and, in her own way, struggles in a male-dominated world to prove herself to her grandfather, the chief, and win his respect. Then the community is forced to come together in order to save a pod of whales that is stranded on its beach. Pai's spiritual affinity with the whales and her courage finally proves that she is the true leader of her people..... (www.imdb.com)