The Island

As the sole survivor of a shipwreck, the neurotic Robinson is stranded on a remote island. Plagued by loneliness, he spends his days totally bored on the beach, dreaming of a sheltered life in modern consumer society. Even the optimism brought by the arrival of Friday, he himself the sole survivor of a sunken refugee ship, is unable to shake Robinson out of his melancholy.

One day, Robinson’s mother and her lover, the ex-pirate Pierre, suddenly appear on the island. The two are on the run from their tyrannical grandmother, who opposes their relationship. Without further ado, Robinson decides to set off with them and explore the island’s inland. While the trio experiences all kinds of bizarre encounters on their journey, Friday, who is left behind, tries to build his own paradise on the beach.

Romanian director Anca Damian is a frequent and welcome guest at Fantoche. For several years, she has delighted festival audiences with her short and feature-length films (including “Crulic” and “Marona’s Fantastic Tale”) and won numerous international awards. Her new work “The Island” reinterprets the well-known tale of the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe as a surreal fairy tale about modern life. Damian and her co-author Augusto Zanovello subversively question the colonialist view of the original and refer to current issues such as environmental pollution and the European treatment of refugees. The film shines in particular with its innovative sound design: the dialogues are conceived throughout as spoken word, which seamlessly transitions into elaborate song sequences again and again. (Mischa Haberthür)