The Islanders

“The idea for this film came from a feeling of great helplessness towards older friends and their frail bodies. The question was, ‘How should I behave toward them?’ I was inspired by a friend—a retired doctor—who helped me to realize that my behavior toward her wasn’t right. I tended to be protective of her, to mother her, although all she really wanted was to simply enjoy a glass of wine. I read Simone de Beauvoir’s The Coming of Age and realized that nothing has changed since 1970, that we still have a natural tendency to infantilize older people and strip them of their status as adults. This is how Gaëlle came to be: a young woman who refuses to acknowledge the finite nature of things, who cannot bear to see people die.

Her denial of death is made worse by her own guilt of not being present when her mother died. This character certainly contains something of myself, as I did not seem to notice my own mother aging.

The film deals with what it is that makes life appealing and, in particular, asks the question: How does one die with joy?”

Alanté Kavaité