Red Island
2023
5.5
2.5K
views
saved
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Red Island
2023
5.5
2.5K
views
saved
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Madagascar, at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. On an air base of the French army, the soldiers live the last carefree years of colonialism. Influenced by his readings of Fantômette, Thomas, a child who is not yet 10 years old, gradually forges a look at the world around him.
Countries:
FR
Languages:
French, Malagasy
Runtime:
1hrs 57min
Status:
Released
Release date:
2023-05-31
Release format:
Streaming
— Nov 21, 2023
Like an imitation ruby, it has a beautiful setting but not much substance.
What starts off as a beautifully filmed memoir about the last days of French soldiers on the then-occupied free Madagascar quickly evaporates into an exercise of style in the absence of any kind of story or approach. It then completely goes off the rails at the end when it decides oh yeah, it's also a political movie.
Basically, the film falls into the same trap as all these autobiographical movies: the director thinks because his childhood is interesting to him that it's interesting to us, but...
(P.S. Do yourself a favor and check out the haunting song "The Red Island" by Arnaud Rebotini and Beki Mari. It's an original song for the film but feels like a track from back in the 1970s.)