Sugarcane Shadows - Motherless
Thoughts On: Sugarcane Shadows (2014)
Made by David Constantin, this is the Mauritian film of the series.
Sugarcane Shadows is a realist presentation of globalisation's impact on local Mauritians. It is set in an agricultural area that is seeing a long-standing sugarcane farm as well as its workers homes being demolished and replaced with high-end housing for tourists. The narrative undulates between a sentiment of land being lost, and land never being owned. It is a parable of sorts in that its story has been one that has echoed through much of Mauritius' modern history; from the post-war era of the 20s and 30s.
Sugarcane was introduced during one of the earlier colonisation periods of the country by the Dutch in the 17th century. Mauritius, being a small island far off the coast of Madagascar, is thought not to have a genuine native population, instead was discovered by different groups over history before becoming a central area for colonists such as the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British. It is due to colonisation that the land is multi-ethnic with many peoples being moved through or to the island through slave-trade or indentured servitude in the French and British colonial eras. Sugar production motivated much of this, becoming a major aspect of the economy until the end of World War 1. Through the 20th century, there were multiple declines in the sugarcane economy, which saw the necessity of the development of other forms of trade and the tourist economy. Mauritius is currently consider one of the most developed countries in Africa with one of the highest ranking gdps.
Sugarcane Shadows has various elements within that all allude to the impacts of different colonial periods on the country as connected with sugar cane. It therefore has the ominous presence of deer and other animals (introduced by the Dutch) as well as displaying the boom of tourism and tensions between the various ethnics groups inhabiting the island. These minor details fall within the narrative, asserting a man-made-ness, a manufactured-ness, in the culture. One then feels, as we watch aging men (sons, possibly, of slaves and indentured servitudes who worked on the farms they have their entire lives) with no, or otherwise narratively distant, families gripping to their land, that the island is little more than a commercial passing place too overwhelmed by the whims of economics to be a true home to many. There's little more than a quiet minor drama that unfolds across the film; personal histories are lost, a man is ultimately driven to murder, but all of it is precented procedurally and with an uncanny calmness. The uncanniness of this film is a little reminiscent of Yorgos Lanthimos with its violence; it is all symbolic yet in some way meaningless. And such may be the overarching gesture of Sugarcane Shadows. It is a rageless, submissive protest. Yet, as much as this narrative is a despair, it is also a love story.
There is an almost surreal element of this film in which every man feels lost and almost motherless. This of course emerges at the facade with them losing their homeland, and also with the history of colonialism and Mauritius, one could feel the country not being a motherland to many within. And such, one could see, surmises part of the film's assessment of identity in the Mauritian, multi-ethnic context. Stepping deeper into this, one finds the love story distracting the main character, Marco. He is an aging farmer whose main friend is an old farmer. They both appear to be alcoholics. It is not clear if Marco has a wife, or if the images of him in bed with another woman are fantasies. Nevertheless, he becomes fascinated by his boss' wife; her being Indian and he Creole (I believe). Nothing comes of their interest in one another but a basic inspiration to pursue something else. As Marco and his friend drink on the hill, they seem to contemplate this, staring ahead at a range of hills. They would have been staring at these hills for years, but only in the beginning of the film does Marco realise that they make the illusion of a naked woman. This image is fed to us throughout the film until it is lost and Marco stares out to the sea. What does he see, we could not say. But, again, the notion of motherlessness rings.
Quiet and ever so slightly fantastical, Sugarcane Shadows is a fascinating contemplation on realistic drama - shot in live construction sites and largely with local people - that illuminates the shadow cast by history in Mauritius.
