Vanuatu: Tanna (2015)
I’m trying to watch these films blind. I may have a vague notion of genre, but ideally that’s as much as I’ll know so that my reactions are uncoloured by expectation. For the most part it works, but if I’d known what Tanna was about I’d have probably watched something different so that it didn’t follow straight on from This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection. When I’m watching the first film a country has made, I don’t want to dislike it. I also don’t want to write two reviews in a row saying how mind-numbingly tedious I found a film.
Wawa is in love with Dain. Wawa is promised in marriage to someone from another tribe. Shakespearean inevitability ensues.
I dislike films that I find obvious. If I’m watching a thriller, I want to be surprised. I don’t want to be able to anticipate every twist and turn of the plot before the final revelation that what I thought was happening all along is exactly what was actually happening. The same applies to a drama.
Nothing about Tanna (with one notable exception) is surprising. Life on a beautiful tropical island? It’s exactly what you expect it to be. Separating people in love? It leads where you expect it to. Forced marriage to another tribe? Yeah, that’s not going to end well. The only element of this that was in any way surprising is that it’s actually a true story, filmed in the very places it unfolded. Truth is so much less strange than fiction, it turns out, because reality is as predictable and unsurprising as one finds it to be on a daily basis. If anything, it’s almost reassuring that it’s even the same on an island without any mod cons. The human experience is indeed universal.
Every aspect of the film actually works – the cast are absolutely convincing (because they really are the residents of the island Tanna). The filmmakers (from Australia) must have taken months helping the cast become comfortable enough in front of a camera to do this, and it pays off – this has an almost documentary feel because that’s how real it seems. It also gives a genuine insight into life on Tanna, so from that point of view the film succeeds perfectly. And if you’re the kind of person who likes a doomed romance, then this is the film for you. There’s a reason Romeo and Juliet-style tales have been popular for two thousand years. I have no idea what that reason is, because the story doesn’t do a thing at all for me, but lots of others find it relatable; the film’s for them. It’s definitely not for me.
Disc: DVD (Region 1, USA)
Source: eBay
Availability: Still widely available; Region 2 editions also exist