SUGAR CANE ALLEY

US, 1983, 103 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Euzhan Palcy.

Sugar Cane Alley is an interesting, enjoyable film. It is of interest as the first feature film from the West Indian island of Martinique. It is based on a novel, Black Shack Alley by Martinique writer Joseph Zobel. It has been written for the screen and directed by documentary film-maker (in her late 20s) Euzhan Palcy. The only professional actors in the film are the grandmother played by Darling Legitimus and the old man Medouze played by Senegalese actor Douta Seck. An excellent children’s cast is led by Garry Cadenat as Jose.

The film is set in the '30s and the excellent photography work and use of locations immerses the audience in the cane fields, the villages, the Fort de-France and way and style of life of the times.

The director has a sensitivity towards the characters and the situations in Martinique - and this is readily and agreeably communicated to the audience. An excellent example of Third World film-making.

1. An enjoyable film? Interest? Impact? Awards at the Venice Film Festival? A film from Martinique, the West Indies? A West Indies film industry?

2. The work of the director: a feminine viewpoint, young viewpoint, from Martinique, the history and the flavour of the people and of society, the issues? An adaptation of a novel, interpretation, sensitivity? Paris-trained director, the film and the influence of the French film industry? Documentary background? The skill of writing and directing?

3. The director's sensitivity: towards the island and its society, the atmosphere of the past, history, heritage, pride, oppression, racism, exploitation? A French- Colonial outpost? The repercussions on the people? Their African background? Slavery? The director's eye for detail, treatment of specifics, inviting the audience to feel with the people?

4. A novel from Martinique by an indigenous author, his experiences and sensitivity? The impact of the credits with the range of postcards: French outpost - yet Caribbean? The film as the equivalent of a visual letter sent to the world?

5. The titles - Sugar Cane Alley, Black Shack Alley (the title of the original novel and the French title of the film)? Themes? Treatment - sweetness or grimness?

6. The picture of Martinique in the 1930s: the village and the homes, the poor, neat and dignified homes and people, working and surviving? Joy and sorrow? Oppression? The adults and their labour, the children and their play, sense of community? The possibilities of education - or not? 20th century social changes, mechanism, wealth? The whites and the Martinique supervisors and their treatment of the workers? The native children, the mulattos? The city and wealth? The boats from village to city? The '30s cinema - with Dracula, The Jazz Singer etc.? Education and the future?

7. The cane fields and the hard work, the hours, the pay, the docking of the workers? The importance of the pay sequence with the adults waiting around, being given their handout, humiliated? The transition to the shopping - and the lack of money? Wives managing? Adults coping and not coping, drinking? The children and their play, as a group, the meal, ransacking Jose's house, breaking the pot, the raiding of the yard for the fruit and the egg, the buying of the rum, their getting drunk, setting fire to the house and garden? School? The children and their dealing with the adults? Having to be children and adult?

8. The portrait of the grandmother - a good and noble woman? her experience, her love for Jose, looking after him, working in the cane fields, her age and being tired, the neatness of her house, the discipline for Jose, her love for him? Not wanting Jose to work in the cane fields? His going to school? Her supplying his food? The trip to Fort de France and her dressing up, the interview, the poor scholarship? Her determination? Her illness? Moving to the city, doing the washing and ironing? Enjoying Jose's achievement? her return to the village, illness, dying? A strong woman? Bound by tradition - yet transcending it?

9. The character of Jose and the focus of the film: the young boy, his friends in the village, teaching Carmen to read, his intelligence, the influence of Medouze and his listening to him, understanding his heritage, the search for Medouze in death, his going to Africa (and his grandmother later going there)? The troubles with the other children, his being punished? School and his success? Mrs Leonce and her meals,- yet her using him for jobs and his breaking her plates? The discipline in the school? The examination and his success? Friendship with Leopold? The horse ride together - and the father's intervention and his being kicked? Leopold's running away? The city, the scholarship, the suit, his hard work, his being careful with his money, not having much to eat, the essay and his pleasure in its being read out, the teacher accusing him of cheating, his visit to Carmen and the tour of the house? The vindication by the teacher? The discussion with the girl selling the tickets in the theatre - and her wanting to be white, not to marry a white? His insight and comments on what it was to be black and to be white? His grandmother's illness and her death? Leopold being arrested and his calling out to him? The future and his possibilities?

10. The contrasts between the children - the girl and her leadership, friendship, not being able to go on after the exam, work in the Post Office, helping grandmother? Leopold and his friendship with Jose, his going home, his mother's wealth, the servants, his being brought up in a wealthy household, his father's attack, being kicked by the horse, his death and Leopold's hearing him not being acknowledged his son, running away, his going to the factory to look at the documents and take them, his being arrested? The other children and their wisdom and innocence?

11. The background of religion - Christian, the holy pictures, the priest and his acclaim of the white man and his bringing the statue from Lourdes? The men and their voodoo talk? The charms and the chants of the children?

12. The children and their ransacking the house, moving as a group, the pressures on them by their parents, the buying of the rum and the matches, the egg, their drinking and the effect, burning the house, punishment, work?

13. Carmen and his work on the boat, learning to write, attracted to the girls, his ambition to be an actor, working at the cinema, the tour of the house, his treatment by the lady of the house - imitating her yet the sexual use?

14. Leopold as mulatto, the house, his mother and father, the Josephine Baker records, his being disinherited?

15. Medouze and the wise man, present in the village, his story of Africa - and the vividness of its telling?

16. The portrait of a people?