It is possible that most of us wouldn’t have seen this film; as usual FilmBulb brings an unknown film to its table. This is the first and the only film from the country Fiji. Directed by Vilsoni Hereniko.
The film is set in one of a Fijian dependency island called Rotuman, The film opens with a father narrating a story of “Warrior Women” to his daughter Vikki (Sapeta Taito). He narrates how a woman was abandoned by his brothers in an island and how she survived there to become warrior women. Vikki a school going girl takes inspiration from the story to overcome their misgivings in the life. As most of the islanders, Vikki’ father Haputi(Voi Fesaitu) is a coconut farmer (In Rotuman language coconut is called copra. Notice the word has close resemblance to its equivalent Tamil and Telugu words). His neighbor accuses him of stealing coconut and drags him to the court. The English judge, who is dependent on Sato the translator, gives a wrong judgement, by branding Haputi as a thief. Haputi has to pay fine. As Haputi health deteriorates, the rest of the film is set on how Vikki stands for and with her family to prove the innocence of her father.
The title The Land Has Eyes is derived from an old Rotuman saying “The land has eyes and teeth”, meaning any wrongdoing will always revert to the person who committed it. (கேடுவான் கேடு நினைப்பான்).
The making of the film is very minimalistic. The film touches on some Fijian rituals, simplistic life with not so much expectations and on how someone from one part of a world (English Judge) fails to understand the other tradition and language.
Go for it if you want to see the one and only film from a country. The full film is available in Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/112031380
Country Series – This will feature countries from alphabetical order, A to Z. One film from a country will be written on a weekly basis. Next in the series will be from G...
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