SUGARCANE SHADOWS Feature Film by David Constantin

LONBRAZ KANN – SUGARCANE SHADOWS
Feature Film by David Constantin
Caméléon Production – Lithops Films
PARTNERS
TECHNICAL SHEET
Original Film Tittle
English Fimm Title
Language
Director
Producers
DOP
Sound
Editor
Length
Lonbraz Kann
Sugarcane Shadows
English or French sub
David Constantin
Caméléon Production
Lithops Films
Sabine Lancelin
Henri Maïkoff
Morgane Spacagna
88 minutes
Cast :
Danny Bhowaneedin
Raj Bumma
Nalini Aubeeluck
Jean Claude Catheya
Jérôme Boulle
Bernard Li Kwong Ken
Contacts
david@cameleonprod.com
+230 57 29 72 37
fredeyriey@hotmail.com
06 92 05 77 60
LOGLINE
The close down of an old sugar mill in Mauritius, calls into question the lives of Marco and his friends, a group of former
workmates in their mid fifties. In this country where sugar cane has always been the nourishing mother earth, the characters
find themselves suddenly trapped between inescapable modernity and living conditions they find it all the harder to
accept. The last sugarcanes are cut down, revealing new ephemeral horizons and the deep ties that unite them all.
SYNOPSIS
Marco, Bissoon and their friends are in their mid fifties. They worked all
their lives in the sugar factory of their village in Mauritius. The factory is
closing down and a large billboard has grown up along the road leading
to the village: soon here, there will be only a golf course and luxury villas.
Caught up in the events, none of them is properly prepared for the all too
predictable collapse of their world.
Through the perfect storm that cuts down the last sugarcane and then
tears up the roots of these different lives, a humanity stronger than all
before it is revealed. These men were united in their labor; they will stand
united as things collapse.
How can you survive your own history, the humiliation and the
disintegration of social relations? How can you re-invent yourself, love and
live a dignified and independent life when you have never learned to?
LONBRAZ KANN tells the story of people, as close as it gets to them.
Sometimes on a tenderly mood, sometimes more bitter.
Lombraz Kan is far more than an anecdote from a distant corner of the
world, its a modern history. A portrait of a multicultural society lost
between traditions and modernity. It’s a film about economic liberalism,
economic crisis and its impact on workers at the other end of the global
chain. Its an untypical view of a country whose enduring image of picturepostcard paradise has so long conveyed the idea that, whatever happens,
people here are happy.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Lonbraz Kann (Shadows of the Sugar Cane) is the story of a
group of former workers, all in their mid fifties, from a village
in Mauritius Island. The film starts with an event that turns
their daily life and their raison d’être upside down: the closing
of the sugar mill which they have always worked for.
The movie’s action is set in a disillusion atmosphere. In fact,
for three centuries, the sugarcane has been the “lung” and
pillar of the Mauritian economy. From the arrival of the first
French colonists in 1715 to the years 2000, from the first
slaves decimated at work to the Indian indentured labourers
with their political claims, the cane always been the cement of
the Mauritian multi-ethnic society, and supported the
development of this small pin lost in the middle of the Indian
Ocean which, as time went by, has become one of the
leaders of the African countries in terms of wealth production.
With the world trades liberalization, the end of the
preferential agreements with Europe and the world economic
crisis, the price of sugar dropped in a dramatic way, leading
to the closing of many mills, the redevelopment of land and
the metamorphosis of the Mauritian landscape.
Today, the sugarcane is being replaced by golfing greens; this
fertile land, nurturing in the past, is nothing more today than
a ground trampled by the most expensive shoes of the world!
With the closing of the sugar mills, not only have the
economic priorities changed but also the life in community
falters. Villages long ago turned towards land working are
now closed up within huge land-development plans. The
residents, formerly called Zabitan (pejorative term referring to
workers living on the plantations, far from everything and
especially from progress in general) see battalions of foreign
workers, estate agencies, tourists and luxury cars turning up
in their world all of a sudden.
In this big mess, facing the interests of some families
descending from colonists who still hold the reins of the
economic power, the future of hundreds of workers having
“voluntarily” retired does not carry any weight. And it is
precisely in these invisible workers, who have shaped with
their work a country abandoning them today, that we have
decided to take an interest.
This movie follows their story. The characters are not victims,
they try to manage at their best the consequences of a
decision already taken and for which they have mourned: the
closing of what has been until then their only mean of
subsistence from one generation to another: the sugar mill.
Each one has to look for a new meaning to his life, or at least
something to cling to. Some succeed, others do not. Out of
the fray, LONBRAZ KANN is also about the impact of a
liberalized economy on those who are at the end of a chain
whose logic and power they can’t challenge.
When the cane falls, new horizons open up to the village for
just a few months. This breath of air gives rise to new hopes,
new perspectives unimaginable up to now, although
ephemeral: Marco gets closer to Devi, Ah-Yan prepares his
departure for the new world, Rosario tries to innovate.
The movie is first voluntarily weaved on the quiet rhythm of
the village, caught up in its routine, in the immutable
repetition of the movements, like a last resistance to the
imminent upheaval. Then the story gets carried away and the
characters reveal themselves, confide themselves in a spirit
reminding the one of this modernity that although
audacious and inevitable, is as much more devastating.
And it’s in this frenzy that the invisible links uniting them
get revealed. It’s in the turmoil suddenly cutting their root
that they finally reveal themselves. The film wants to
express, through the journey of the seven characters, the
difficulty of fully being, of wanting, of desiring, when one
has always been brought to heel and despised.
The film atmosphere navigates between dramatic and
comic/ironic situations brought by the characters and the
strong link that unite them. Life goes on and despite this
dramatic situation they still find some time to laugh
together, to have a drink under the tamarin tree and to
make fun of themselves.
We want LONBRAZ KANN to be far more than an
anecdote from a distant corner of the world, we want it to
speak of a universal reality. The characters find themselves
suddenly trapped between inescapable modernity and
living conditions they find it all the harder to accept.
Through the perfect storm that cuts down the last
sugarcane and then tears up the roots of these different
lives, humanity, stronger than all before, is revealed. These
men were united in their labour; they will stand united as
things collapse.
The dominant colours are those of the field’s land (that are
also those of the residential camp), the dark interiors of the
hardly lit maisonettes of the camp contrast with the
sweetened picture of the so-called Mauritian post cards.
The twilight, turning the mill’s chimney into a frightening
shadow, little by little, reminds that here and there, people
live, suffer and endure.
THE DIRECTOR
David Constantin is a Mauritian producer and film director. He is today one of the emerging filmmakers in the Indian Ocean
islands. His films speak about changes in modern society and how they impact human relations. David directed and
produced several short films and documentaries, among others: Diego the Forbidden, a documentary on the deportation
of the people of the Chagos Island by the US and UK government and Made in Mauritius, a short film about globalisation
from the point of view of an old laborer in Mauritius. David's films were awarded several prizes like the European Grand
Prix for First Films (Switzerland), Special Jury Award in Festival Vue d'Afrique (Montréal) for Contribution to Human Rights in
Africa and Fondation Pellegrini Award in Milan. Lonbraz Kann is his first feature film.
David is also active in training young Mauritians in cinematography and with a few other film directors and producers from
the region, tries to develop a local cinema with a strong Indian Ocean identity.
FILMOGRAPHY
2003: Diego l’Interdite – Diego the Forbidden (doc, 50 min)
> Grand Prix Européen des Premiers Films (Vevey, Suisse)
> Mention Spéciale du Jury, Vues d’Afrique (Montréal)
2004 : Colas – The Dictionary (short film, 35mm, 15min)
> Premier prix, Festival de Mesnil le Roy (France)
> Prix du Jeune public, Festival Plein Sud (France)
2005 : Bisanvil (Short film, 35mm, 15 min)
> Prix du Public, Festival International du Film d’Amiens (France)
> Prix Spécial du Jury, Festival du Film d'Afrique et des Iles (La Réunion)
> Prix du Jury de la Maison d'Arrêt d'Amiens (France)
2007 : Les Accords de Bella (doc, 52 min)
2008-2010 : Venus d’Ailleurs – From So Far (doc 4 x 1h)
2010 : Made in Mauritius (short film, Digital, 7 min)
> Prix Fondation Pelligrini, Festival Cine Africano, Milan
2014 : Lonbraz Kann – Sugarcane Shadows (feature film)
> Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (Belgique)
> Festival International du Film d'Afrique et des Iles (La Réunion)
> Stockholm International Film Festival
> FESPACO
> LAFF – Luxor African Film Festival
> Festival Cinama Africano – Milano
> Mémoires Communes (Morocco)
> Leuven African Film Festival
> ZIFF – Zanzibar International Film Festival
THE PRODUCERS
Caméléon Production
Country : Mauritius
Main producer
Producer : David Constantin
Lithops Films
Country : Réunion (France)
Coproducer & Executive Producer
Producer : Fred Eyriey
WEBSITE
http://lonbrazkann.com
DIGITAL MATERIAL
https://mega.co.nz/#F!nhZRELRZ!lBubPhtJ90F4iptv6G-RPQ
FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/lonbrazkann
CONTACT
David Constantin
david@cameleonprod.com
+230 57 29 72 37
Photo credits © Julien Venner – www.Pixelinthebox.com
© Caméléon Production – 2014
20 Route Royale, Belle-Etoile 71616, Ile Maurice
www.cameleonprod.com / david@cameleonprod.com