"Lonbraz Kann" (English captions) is enjoying its North
American Premier at the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival.
Submitted by Mauritius, we are treated to director David Constantin's
first feature film.
Mauritius is suffering from a deluge of
free-spending tourists and is in danger of losing its cultural identity.
Director Constantin uses "local" people to tell his story, not
"imported" talent.
We see Raj Bumma Put, David Bhowaneedin,
Nalini Aubeeluck, Jean-Claude Cathey and Jérôme Boulle portray
subsistence inhabitants whose main source of income is disappearing with
the closure of the local sugar mill. Things become more complicated for
our handsome hero when a new construction foreman moves into the area
with his lovely wife.
A local man provides comic relief as he steals flowers from grave-sites to sell later at a local shop. He also has a delightful encounter with a bus-load of tourists.
We
saw the rapacious attitude of corporate officials moving into the
area who represent the main developer, so we even had villains to
loathe.