Red Island (12A)

A wonderfully inventive childhood film, set in 1970s Madagascar, a decade or so after the former French colony gained its independence.

Eight-year-old Thomas lives on a French military base with his family. Always watching his parents and their circle of expatriate friends, he gleans information about the adult world, both
sexual and territorial, that he cannot fully comprehend. The rest of the time he lives in a fantasy world dominated by his alterego, junior comic book hero Fantômette. Autobiographically
inspired, Campillo’s (120 BPM) film resonates with vivid personal memory and Thomas’s childlike perception is brought into relief as the Malagasy people face the dying throes of colonialism.