Living on one of the last remaining military bases amidst a hedonistic group of French armed forces in 1970s Madagascar, ten-year-old Thomas begins to find cracks in the surface of his family’s blissful existence on the idyllic island. Taking inspiration from his comic book hero Fantomette, Thomas spies on those around him, discovering the hidden and tangled political and sexual lives of the colonizers and the colonized. As relocation looms, Thomas questions whether the memories he has made are ones he should remember fondly.
Rooted in the filmmaker’s own childhood and shot in the classic 1:33 aspect ratio, Red Island is made up of a hundred different fragments, textures, memories, fantasies. It more than fulfills the promise of Campillo’s acclaimed debut, 120 BPM.
It’s a compelling, visually exquisite piece of work.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Confirms its helmer as a major name in contemporary French cinema — one who can fill a sprawling period canvas with considerable visual imagination and sensory detail.
Guy Lodge, Variety
Robin Campillo
Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Quim Gutiérrez, Charlie Vauselle, Amely Rakotoarimalala, Sophie Guillemin, Hugues Delamarlière
France/Belgium/Madagascar
2023
In French and Malagasy with English subtitles
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