Enemy Brothers: Hentz

Jonathan Bougard
2019-05-27

Immersion in the Thai boxing club of Hentz Tinomoe, Team Arupa in the Vaininiore district of Papeete.
10
18 min

In Tahiti, Vaininiore has the reputation of being a red-light district. However, while walking there, we will meet young people full of joie de vivre, smiling, a little rowdy... They spend their days playing football on the field, and at five o'clock every evening they have training with Hentz Tinomoe, the neighborhood colossus, three times Polynesian Thai boxing champion in the super-heavyweight category. His club, Team Arupa, is one of those fairly tight sub-groups: to be admitted you must first run to the dike, then put on gloves and exchange blows. Unknown to the general public, they chose pragmatism.