Tanna (2016) Plot Summary Explained

Wawa was promised to the Imedin tribe as part of a peace agreement after the Imedin attacked and mortally wounded her grandfather, the tribe's shaman. The elders offered Wawa as a bride to stop the cycle of violence and establish peace between the two tribes.

• wawa
• iedin
• marriage
• peace agreement
• shaman

The Imedin attacked the shaman at the sacred site of Yahul near the volcanoes. While the exact motivation isn't fully explained, the attack appears to be part of the ongoing tribal conflict between the two groups, with the Imedin targeting the spiritual leader to weaken the Kastom tribe.

Foreshadowing: The tension between the tribes was established early through sporadic conflicts over tradition and power.

• iedin
• shaman
• attack
• yahul
• volcanoes

Dain was exiled because Wawa publicly confessed that she had already had sex with him, making her unacceptable to the Imedin as a bride. This act of defiance against the arranged marriage and Kastom traditions angered the elders, who banished Dain as punishment.

• dain
• exile
• marriage
• kastom
• tradition

Wawa confessed she had sex with Dain to force the elders to accept that she could no longer marry into the Imedin tribe. By revealing this, she hoped to break the arranged marriage and be free to be with Dain, though the confession ultimately led to Dain's exile.

• wawa
• dain
• confession
• iedin
• marriage

After being exiled and hunted by both their own people and the Imedin, Wawa and Dain chose to eat poison mushrooms as a way to escape their impossible situation. Rather than live separated by tradition or face the consequences of defying Kastom, they chose death together.

Foreshadowing: The lovers' desperate situation was foreshadowed by their continued defiance despite increasing pressure from elders and the threat of Imedin revenge.

• poison mushrooms
• death
• suicide
• wawa
• dain

The peace agreement involved the Imedin coming to the Kastom village to negotiate. Pigs were traded as part of the accord, and the same Imedin who killed the shaman symbolically clubbed the pigs to death in a ritual mimicking their violence, acknowledging the cycle of killing while agreeing to peace.

• peace
• pigs
• iedin
• kastom
• treaty

The forbidden zone was an area in the wilderness where the Imedin had previously massacred people from the Kastom tribe. Selin entered this zone after stealing a penis sheath, and her transgression prompted her grandfather the shaman to take her to the sacred site to teach her respect.

• selin
• forbidden zone
• massacre
• wilderness

The elders decided to add love-based marriage to Kastom after witnessing the tragedy of Wawa and Dain's deaths. They concluded that their rigid tradition had caused the lovers' suicide and that recognizing love marriages was necessary to keep their culture alive and relevant.

• kastom
• elders
• love marriage
• tradition
• culture change

After Wawa and Dain died from eating poison mushrooms, their people came to find them and buried them in the village. Their deaths became the catalyst for cultural change, though their burial marked a tragic end to their personal story.

• burial
• death
• bodies
• village

The pigs were killed by the same Imedin men who had murdered the shaman, using the same clubbing method. This ritual act symbolized the cycle of violence and death, demonstrating the Imedin's acknowledgment of their crimes while agreeing to the peace terms.

• pigs
• killing
• peace ritual
• iedin
• shaman