Just over a decade ago, Fijian director Tulia Nacola was eking out a living as a carpenter. She specialized in intricate driftwood chandeliers, which hung in resorts along Fiji’s Coral Coast, an 80-mile stretch of white sand beaches and verdant palm forests that fringe the main island of the South Pacific Ocean archipelago. Nacola’s work caught the eye of a visiting art director for a reality TV show, Beauty and the Geek Australia . He asked for some of her pieces, and she helped him build his set.

An English-lit major, Nacola, 41, was quietly writing her own stories, gaining a following in Fiji for her novels highlighting the experiences of indigenous Fijians, or iTaukei. In 2024, she shot her first short film on a secondhand smartphone; its reception showed a thirst for local stories, and soon Nacola gained financial backing for a feature film.…