In Theaters 08.16.2024 or Watch at Home 11.15.2024

Red Island

Directed by Robin Campillo
Film Movement
2023
117 Minutes
France, Belgium, Madagascar
French, Malagasy
Drama, Coming of Age
Not Rated
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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.

Simultaneously a sensual evocation of discovering the adult world and a sober reflection of what it represents, Robin Campillo’s anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed 120 BPM weaves together the personal and political in a “visually spectacular [and] masterful portrayal of colonialism through a child’s eyes” (The Upcoming).

Director & Cast

  • Director: Robin Campillo
  • Starring: Nadia Tereszkiewicz
  • Starring: Quim Gutiérrez
  • Starring: Charlie Vauselle
  • Starring: Amely Rakotoarimalala
  • Starring: Sophie Guillemin
  • Starring: Hugues Delamarlière

Where to Watch

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "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
  • "***** It’s a compelling, visually exquisite piece of work."
    Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
  • "Floats along as if borne on the breeze of memory, lilting between vignettes that murmur with hidden meaning."
    Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
  • "Lush, perceptive...The film has a miraculous ability to ground itself in reality while also retaining, in Thomas, the feeling of a tender childhood naiveté."
    Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal
  • "A film dripping with the kind of irony and atmosphere that Marguerite Duras could appreciate, only much more playful...."
    Deborah Young, The Film Verdict
  • "The oddly paradoxical RED ISLAND is at once lackadaisical and urgent, relaxed but with a clear eye for how swiftly everything will end for the characters at its center."
    Ryan Swen, Slate Magazine
  • "Frequently poignant and always visually spectacular, Campilo’s Red Island is a masterful portrayal of colonialism through a child’s eyes."
    Andrew Murray, The Upcoming
  • "Red Island is an affecting, intensely personal film from Robin Campillo, inspired by his own childhood days on Madagascar."
    Jonathan Romney, Financial Times
  • "It captures beautifully and atmospherically a sense of mounting tension as the military men grapple with their impotency in a newly independent country."
    Wendy Ide, The Observer
  • "A film that is very bold in its intention of masked intelligence and very successful in its approach to the perception of the imperceptible."
    Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
  • ""Red Island becomes more than a young boy’s simple coming-of-age tale and instead a covert treatise on the subject of colonial rule."
    J Paul Johnson, Film Obsessive
Nominated
Golden Seashell
San Sebastián Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
BFI London Film Festival
Official Selection
Rendezvous with French Cinema, Lincoln Center
Nominated
Dragon Award
Göteborg Film Festival
Nominated
Carmel Award
Haifa Int'l. Film Festival

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