Directed by Martin Butler & Bentley Dean
Australia/Vanuato | Nauvhal w/ English subtitles | Fiction | 2016 | 104 min
Film Source: Lightyear Entertainment
Showtime: Saturday, October 29 | 3:45 p.m. | BB
Awards: Best Direction in a Feature Film – Australian Directors Guild Awards / Best Cinematography – Venice Film Festival / Australia’s official submission to the 89th Academy Awards
Vanuatu native Marco Johnson will be in attendance. Q&A moderated by Megan Epler Wood.
After a young woman runs away with the man she loves to avoid an arranged marriage, villagers wrestle with preserving their traditional culture, or adapting it to the increasing outside demands for individual freedom. Tanna is the first-ever feature shot entirely in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. Based on dramatic events that took place on the volcanic island of Tanna in 1987, Tanna is breathtakingly beautiful and compellingly told. The filmmakers spent seven months living with the Yakel, a tribe whose customs and lifestyle have changed little for centuries. During this time the filmmakers were told of a great love story from the recent past. The result was a screenplay written in close collaboration with the Yakel and performed predominantly by its members, who had never seen a film before. An eye-opening scene sees arranged marriage defended via the example of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II. This Romeo and Juliet story offers not only a glimpse into a remote and unfamiliar place and culture, but also raises questions about the traditional and the modern. The story is about opposed tribes, their attempts to make peace, and two lovers who rebel after one is steered into an arranged marriage. ~OY