Mark Reviews Movies: MADAGASIKARA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 25, 2020

A short and shallow dissection of the economic and political situations in Madagascar, director Cam Cowan's Madagasikara nearly compensates for its lack of historical context by focusing almost exclusively on the lives of three women. We hear these women's stories from them and watch as they try to survive and rise above the poverty that began rising almost immediately after Madagascar gained its independence from France in 1960.

It's the fourth largest island in the world, and it might be the poorest country on the planet. Of those below the poverty line, about half of them are children. Such are the statistics of the economic crisis faced by the people of Madagascar, which Cowan provides at one point through the series of talking heads who comment upon what is happening in that country and briefly explain why.

The documentary entirely ignores the history of colonialism and the process of independence for the island nation (It seems as if the director just assumes we either know these matters already or can determine the far-reaching consequences of over 60 years of foreign control on our own). It's primary concern is the political struggle of 2009, in which the country's sitting president (who assumed power after claiming suspicious election results) was ousted as a result of protests and sent into exile. The result was an interim leader, backed by the military, and the international community's decision to cease any funding, save for direct humanitarian aid, to Madagascar.

We see the consequences of this (as well as that other, ignored history) through three women. Lin raises seven children (six of hers and a grandchild) on the pennies she makes doing laundry for others in her community (One of the most subtly effective elements of the movie is how Cowan adjusts the local currency for American dollars in the subtitles). Tina works in a quarry in the country's capital with her husband and parents. Deborah became a sex worker as a teenager to pay for school, and with the elimination of social programs and educational funding after 2009, her future is now uncertain again.

These stories matter. They undoubtedly provide a personal perspective that no history lesson or analysis of statistics could offer. In focusing on the stories, Cowan's shows that his heart is in the right place, but Madagasikara loses much of its potential effect by shorting any other context.

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