Niki Caro

“Sense of place is really big for me - as a filmmaker and as an audience member, it's huge.”

“Martial arts are inherently both incredibly impressive and incredibly beautiful. And that's my female nature, maybe, and my instinct, to make things beautiful.”

“You can start making films as a child. It's become easier to find your groove as a filmmaker, and I'm extremely interested in those voices.”

“Fundamentally, the way I work is exactly the same whether I'm making 'Whale Rider' or 'Mulan'. And those two stories are somewhat similar. They have interesting parallels, and it felt like I'd really come full circle, back to a story of leadership.”

“I really value the skill and sensitivity of my collaborators, and I am really interested in - perhaps more so than if I was a male director - the hair, makeup and the textures of the fabric and the wallpaper.”

“You know, what is so curious about being a director is that you never get on anybody else's set and see how they do things.”

“If you look at my body of work, which is not very big, really, it took an evolutionary leap with 'The Zookeeper's Wife'.”

“With every film I've made, 'Whale Rider' included, I've had a vision that was far bigger than the budget allowed.”