Guava Island

A short film set on an island. The island is tropical. It is called Guava. There is a factory on it. Blue silk is produced and almost everyone works there. The factory belongs to one man. Red Cargo runs the island. Deni is a musician. He runs a radio station and sings. Kofi is with him. She works at the factory. Deni wants to hold a festival. One night, a concert, and everyone will come. Red is against it. The reason is plain: a day off is a day of production lost. He sends for him. They talk. He makes an offer. Deni will cancel the festival and be paid for it. Deni refuses. From there the film moves toward that day. Preparation, a stage, people, and a morning. What the narrative is interested in is not music but time: its idea is that the men's whole day belongs to someone else, and that asking for one night off counts as a threat. There is an opening section. The island's story is told in animation; a god, two brothers and a blue silk. Kofi gives a warning. She says Deni should stop. He goes on. The songs are inside the narrative. Deni sings them on stage and they are not written for the film; they come from the artist's own album. In one scene he sings in a field and the workers listen. The ending is short and hard. The narrative stretches nothing. The running time is fifty-five minutes. It was shot in Cuba. The story of the production is short too. After filming it went straight onto a streaming platform free of charge, shown at the same time as a festival night. Hiro Murai directed; he had made many videos with the same artist. Donald Glover, Rihanna, Letitia Wright and Nonso Anozie are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes short films that build music and narrative together. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a developed story; the narrative is built like a fable and the characters have no depth.