“The Red Island”: memories of a lost paradise

The cinema outings of the week with Thierry Fiorile and Matteu Maestracci: “Red Island” by Robin Campillo and “Invincible Summer” by Stéphanie Pillonca.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the Campillo family moved according to the assignments of the father, a soldier in the air force, after Morocco and Algeria, Robin Campillo, his two brothers and his parents settled in Madagascar, independent since 1960.

But the presence of the French army on this strategic island in the Indian Ocean is part of a postcolonial context, which the film The red island restores with snippets of memories of the little boy that was Robin Campillo, Grand Prize and Fipresci Prize (international critics) at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, for the production of 120 beats per minute.

In a heavenly place, the families of soldiers live in isolation, overacting a perfect happiness, while the Malagasys, the Malagasy, appear in the background, before the film changes, when the people revolt against a power deemed too close from France. Gently, the director fictionalises his memory.

invincible summer by Stephanie Pillonca

This is the portrait of Olivier Goy, photographer, entrepreneur, good-looking and athletic build, father of a family, who learns at the end of 2020 that he has Charcot’s disease, a disease that leaves hope most of the time. life not exceeding five years. And rather than resign himself, he decides to fight, even if his body is more and more weak and tired, and especially his speech escapes him little by little.

Stéphanie Pillonca’s camera follows him almost everywhere, in intimate moments with his family, or when he testifies to his illness and his fight, with spectators or associations. Without forgetting these beautiful moments, when he meets wise, philosophical and spiritual personalities, such as the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard or the rabbi Delphine Horvilleur.


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