The history of Caribbean cinema continues its journey through the 1980s. After three episodes devoted to the early developments of several cinematic movements in the region, this fourth installment brings together two films from Martinique and one from Curaçao.
From the “marronnage” in *Le Sang du flamboyant* to the international trajectory of *Rue Cases-Nègres*, and on to the unique worldof *Almacita di Desolato*, these three works explore different relationships to memory, oral tradition, Africa, and Caribbean imaginaries. This article is the fourth installment in a series of ten. The first three are already available on Richès Karayib, and six more will continue this story through the 2020s.
1981: MARTINIQUE — *The Blood of the Flamingo*, by François Migeat
This film is unique in Caribbean cinema. Indeed, its director is a “Metropolitan” (that is, a white man from mainland France who had no deep-rooted ties to the French West Indies) who married the Martinican actress Émilie Benoît and was invited by the poet and politician Aimé Césaire to lead the first audiovisual training program in the Antilles at the SERMAC (Municipal Cultural Action Service) in the city of Fort-de-France.
Unlike *Dérives* or *The Garden Woman* (1977), *Le Sang du flamboyant*, which received strong support from Césaire, was commercially released in theaters and even had the honor of being screened at the renowned Columbia University in New York. It is based on a historical event, namely the “marronage” (originally, a slave’s escape from the plantation) of Monsieur Beauregard (renamed Alban in the film), who eluded the police in the southern part of the post-slavery colony of Martinique from 1942 to 1949, making him one of the last historical Maroons in the Caribbean.
This feature film is characterized by the central role of the “Nègre marron,” one of the recurring characters in Caribbean cinema as well as in traditional Creole storytelling, who drives most of the plot in a cinematic tradition where oral storytelling continues to thrive. Furthermore, it is one of the first films to incorporate a “magical dimension” into the plot, which poses a challenge for the Béké (a descendant of a slave-owning family), generously portrayed by the famous actor and producer Jacques Perrin.
“Femifocality” is also prominent in the character of Élia (played with gravitas by Émilie Benoît, who was the lead actress in *Dérives* or *La Femme-Jardin*), a “woman who stands tall” who narrates the film’s story alongside her storytelling partner Gélus—a female presence that defies the historical tradition that Creole storytellers are exclusively men.
1983: MARTINIQUE—RUE CASES-NÈGRES, BY EUZHAN PALCY
To date, this is undoubtedly the best-known Caribbean film in the world. It is an adaptation of one of the classics of Caribbean literature, the autobiographical novel *La Rue Cases-Nègres* by Joseph Zobel, a close associate of the “Négritude” poet Aimé Césaire. The film won the Silver Lion and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, awarded to Darling Légitimus (grandmother of the famous Pascal Légitimus of the comedy trio “Les Inconnus”), marking the culmination of her fifty-year career at the Venice Film Festival in 1983.
In addition, the director won the César Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 1984. Her subsequent career has been exceptional: after moving to Hollywood, she became the first Black woman to direct Hollywood studio films, with works such asA Dry White Season (1989)—a film about apartheid in South Africa that marked Marlon Brando’s return to the big screen—and the Walt Disney production Ruby Bridges’ Struggle (1998), based on the true story of the first Black girl to attend a school for white children in the southern United States.
His career was recently recognized with an Honorary Oscar in 2022. As for *Rue Cases-Nègres*, it brought young Caribbean cinema to international attention, from the United States to Japan. By following the journey of young José (Garry Cadenat) in the post-slavery colony of Martinique in the 1930s, the film actually addresses the harsh conditions faced by sugarcane workers and the lingering legacy of the era of slavery. As in *Coco la Fleur, Candidate* (1979) and *Le Sang du flamboyant* (1981) features the figure of the Creole storyteller—here embodied by old Médouze—as well as the influence of Négritude.
Furthermore, this child’s educational journey reflects both his social emancipation and the process of “cultural assimilation” through the nature of the courses taught, Grandmother Man Tine (Darling Légitimus), a true embodiment of the traditional “female-centered” perspective of Caribbean cinema, tells her grandson: “You’ll go to their school!” A true classic of Caribbean cinema!
1986: Curaçao – Almacita di Desolato, by Felix de Rooy
After her first feature film, shot in Brooklyn, *Désirée* (1984)—based on the true story of a woman who killed her baby because she was convinced it was possessed by the Devil— the gay couple Felix De Rooy and Norman de Palm shot their second film on the island of Curaçao, where they are from, drawing inspiration from a Caribbean folktale. The landscapes of this small Dutch island of 444 km² off the coast of Venezuela—ranging from caves to desert—serve as the setting for a fusion of magical rituals and the dire reality of an isolated village in an unspecified era.
This legend highlights the African component of Caribbean identities (which can be seen in the village’s architecture, the women’s clothing, traditional knowledge passed down orally, etc.) through a plot that recounts—via a remarkable fictional detour—the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, a history “etched into the skin,” as the film’s voice-over explains.
In addition to its more pronounced fictional nature compared to many Caribbean films—which tend to remain rooted in a certain social or historical reality—this feature film stands out for the multidisciplinary nature of its references, drawn from the background of its director, Felix De Rooy, as a poet, theater artist, and visual artist (among other roles), which lends this work a talented stylistic flair that sets it apart within Caribbean cinema.
Shortly thereafter, the De Rooy-De Palm duo would release another surprising film: Ava & Gabriel (1990), one of the first major stories of romantic desire set within an interethnic love triangle during the colonial era (a “taboo” combination, if ever there was one), one of those films tinged with homosexuality (a very rare subject in the region) through secondary characters and accompanied by a generous exploration of Caribbean arts.
As in Almacita di desolato, the entire work is steeped in the musicality of Papiamento (Papiamentu), a creole language born from the fusion of Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and words of African and Native American (Arawak) origin, as well as by magical-religious beliefs that lend the film an effective sense of magical realism. Shortly thereafter, this duo of effusive talent would burst onto the scene, giving this second film the air of a precious artistic testament.
About the Author
Guillaume Robillard holds a Ph.D. in film studies; he is a professor and researcher, a documentary filmmaker, and a specialist in Caribbean cinema and artistic production. He is the author of two books: *Conquest of Space and Time: Caribbean Cinema (Éditions Jannink, “Hypothèses d’Art,” 2023) and Decolonial Cinema: Characters in Caribbean Cinema (Presses Universitaires des Antilles, “Arts et Esthétique,” 2024).
The release of Magma, a film by French director Cyprien Vial heavily inspired by the 1976 eruption of La Soufrière, which raised fears that the capital city of Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe) would be destroyed, followed by two films directed by Guadeloupeans, namely Fanon (Jean-Claude Barny), about the famous anti-colonialist intellectual during his time in Algeria, and *Zion*, in less than a month, succeeded in drawing the attention of the French media (Le Monde, Libération, etc.) to the potential of Caribbean cinema and, more broadly, of films dealing with the French overseas territories.
