Lonbraz Kann (Sugarcane Shadows) dir. by David Constantin (review)

Lonbraz Kann, the first feature-length film by the Mauritian director David Constantin, opens with the pending closure of a sugar mill that has been the source of work for local inhabitants for several generations. Nearby, luxury villas are being constructed; a billboard advertises the arrival of “Your Private Eden”—luxury plantation-style villas. To make way for further developments, the homes of plantation workers are being razed and bulldozed. Chinese construction workers have been brought in to labor on the villas, and resentment is building among the unemployed workers. Some of the newly unemployed are descendants of indentured servants who migrated to Mauritius from India. Constantin and his co-writer, Sabrina Compeyron, won the award for best screenplay at the Durban International Film Festival in 2015.

Shot in the spaces of actual construction sites beyond the beaches in Mauritius, Lonbraz Kannexplores a place where emotions are sparsely verbalized. Characters sit quietly together in grim waiting rooms, contemplating hillsides, sharing cigarettes, and waiting for managers. Silence does not mean lack of communication, however; much can be read in the characters’ gestures and in the symbolism of the scenes. In one scene, for example, workers are seated under heads of stuffed game. One man turns his chair in a different direction, perhaps to refuse the set-up. Poor working conditions in the new environment are underscored as the mortally wounded body of a Chinese laborer is unceremoniously taken away on a wheelbarrow. Amid long moments of silence, some lively conversations do take place, particularly at a modest boutique run by Ah-Yan, a friendly Chinese shopkeeper who, despite his wife’s complaints, allows the unemployed men to take home merchandise on credit.

According to the website for the film (http://eli357.wix.com/lonbrazkann), it depicts “a society caught in the web of time with the global intruding in the individual life. Set on an Indian Ocean island trailing its cliché of paradise, Lonbraz Kannshows the other side of the obstinate postcard of happy tropical people. …” The film can be read as an extension of Constantin’s briefer contemplation of globalization in his 2009 short film Made in Mauritius, whose title references the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate’s “label of quality for special sugars.” What is particularly significant in Lonbraz Kannis its portrayal of an economic system that pits unemployed locals against temporary laborers recruited from overseas. The film’s depiction of local middle managers whose salaries, homes, and cars are rewards for their ability to get workers to work harder and to accept losses is especially effective. The hierarchical relationships between French bosses and these local managers (Monsieur Labonne and Monsieur Dandev) often mirror the hierarchy established between the managers and laborers.

Through its characters, the film explores various dimensions of economic exploitation and its aftermaths in Mauritius and beyond. The usually absent French director of the sugar mill shows up to issue a speech to workers from above, vaguely calling upon the unemployed to “move forward” and “make concessions,” and then rushes off in his car after silencing protests. Monsieur Dandev, who is similarly threatened and managed by his French boss, is charged with posting demolition announcements and managing the laborers (and is seen dashing off in a smaller car). Monsieur Labonne, charged with handling complaints, tells those who protest that they need to make an appointment, makes them wait, and leaves in a rush before meeting anyone for more than a minute. Those responsible for the closing are rarely if ever present, and leave it to managers (who claim “we’re doing our best for you”) to handle the unpleasantness. Generosity as a practice is discouraged; profits are essential.

The days in which workers protested collectively seem to be over. Leponz, the film’s rebel, is unsuccessful in his attempts to convince his “comrades” to act, and eventually succumbs to financial pressure. Rosario responds to the crisis creatively: he takes scraps from the mill to fashion a new...