Cinema
Tabataba
Raymond Rajaonarivelo · 1988
Synopsis
In 1947, in a Tanala village in eastern Madagascar, a leader of the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renewal comes to urge the villagers to vote in the coming elections. The village splits: some believe the vote will lead to independence, others, with Lehidy, back from the army, want to take up arms. Solo, his twelve-year-old younger brother, too young to fight, sees the men of the clan join the uprising and hopes for their return as heroes, while old Bakanga senses what is coming.
Context
The director was twelve or thirteen when a friend of his grandfather, left crippled, told him about the uprising; the old Bakanga pays tribute to him. The film was shot on location at Maromena, near Ifanadiana, a village burned in 1947, to music by Eddy Louiss; apart from the attack on the Manakara prison, it shows no fighting. The word tabataba means rumour and tumult. The Cinémathèque française and the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français restored it in 2023 from the original negative.
Who it is for
A film of an hour and a half, in Malagasy and French; a few points of reference on 1947 help in following its silences.
Prizes and reception
Audience Award at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1988, the first Malagasy film shown at Cannes; jury prize at Taormina and first work prize at Carthage.