Chhoubi told Kahi he was the grandson of a man Manahi and his men had protected, then rescued, during ferocious fighting on Takrouna mountain.
“For 26 days, Nizar’s grandfather and grandmother and their two cousins had been hiding in this tiny little crevice, this water cistern.
“Now, what did Haane do? He made an incredible decision in the midst of battle to place one of his men at the foot of this cave and protect them with a machine gun that they had just taken from a German machine gun post,” Kahi says.
Chhoubi’s recall of stories passed down to him convinced Kahi that he was the real deal.
“The level of detail is so vivid, so accurate.”
What Chhoubi told him married up perfectly with what Kahi knew about the battle and its aftermath.
“It was like the mountain, the memory of the mountain, opening up in full,” he says.
In April 1943, that mountain was an Axis forces fortress, “with [a] 360-degree view of all incoming traffic – i.e. their enemy”.
Manahi, part of B Company, was instructed to “sneak in the back door” with his men – all related, all from Rotorua – and take out the German and Italian heavy artillery cannons.
“The Second Div [2nd New Zealand Division] was coming into the firing line of the heavy artillery, the German heavy artillery.
Day in the sun: Haane Manahi was recommended for a Victoria Cross after he and B Company comrades captured a fortress in Tunisia in 1943. Photo / George Bull
“So, this is why it was so important for the Māori Battalion to try everything they could to take the hill before the rest of the troops arrived.”
Kahi was approached by Manahi’s niece, Donna Morrison, to make the film. He was reluctant at first, he says.
“I wanted to sidestep the project. I didn’t feel worthy.
“Plus, there are a number of elements to the story that I thought had been well-trodden, and his story was well known. The last thing a film-maker wants to do is retell a story.”
His mind was changed when he met Morrison’s nephew, also called Haane.
“… That was the one that sealed it because of how we tell these stories and what they mean to our mokopuna.”
The death of Sir Bom Gillies, the last surviving member of the Māori Battalion, in 2024 also made telling Manahi’s story important, he says.
“Come the 25th on Saturday, there will be no more members of the 28th who will be with us. So, it really is up to us now to remember them.”
Manahi’s actions in the battle at Takrouna – taking out numerous machine gun posts, protecting Chhoubi’s grandfather’s family on the battlefield and carrying the living and the dead off the mountain under attack – were described by British General Brian Horrocks as “the greatest feat of courage I ever witnessed during the war”.
Alex Tarrant as Sgt Haane Manahi.
After the battle, senior New Zealand officers, including Bernard Freyberg and Howard Kippenberger, along with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, put their names to a Victoria Cross recommendation for Haane, but an unnamed British War Office official struck it out.
Haane was instead awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal. Morrison has been at the forefront of a campaign for him to receive a posthumous VC.
“It’s just one of those incredible quirks that has come about because of an anonymous person at the British War Office. And it’s not just a quirk, it has avalanched into an incredible injustice,” Kahi says.
“But this film, the summit of this film, the pinnacle, is not the downgrade. The summit and emotional climax of the film is connecting this mountain in Rotorua, Ngongotahā, with the living descendants of Takrouna.”