"Whale Rider," starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, will be playing at 7 and 9:15 p.m. tonight, Saturday and Sunday at Wells Hall.

Castle-Hughes has been cast in the third "Star Wars" flick and won critical acclaim in this New Zealand film. She plays Pai Apirana, a young Maori girl struggling to become the leader of her Whangara village.

Apirana is born into the tradition that the first-born male descendant will become chief of the tribe after riding a whale. The tradition is a tribute to Paikea, who led his people to New Zealand by riding on the back of a whale. While everyone in the village loves Apirana, her grandfather doesn't know how to deal with the fact that there isn't a boy to keep the family line going.