Unchained Melody

The scene that prompts slave hunter Madame La Victoire to chase the Maroons, the fugitive slaves, is sparked by the cries of a baby unsettled while being breastfed. These heartbreaking images of a mother on the run with her baby capture the essence of the movie: there is a limit to how much agony a human being can take before spiritedly seeking refuge and reparation. All this is masterfully staged in the dark forest with striking realism. When, in a dream, slave Massamba, Mati’s father, brutally kills the slave owner, few viewers would remain unmoved. Director Simon Moutaïrou deserves praise for avoiding the easy path of depicting violence for violence’s sake. He succeeds in conveying his motivation to raise awareness without resorting to an overkill. Sobriety conveys intense and lasting emotions more effectively.

Madame La Victoire’s moral supremacism is a trap we can all fall into. When we live in a “tribe” with no bridges with the outside world, we only nurture affinities with our fellow human beings based on country of origin, ethnicity, religion, social class and gender. As a result, we tend to lose hindsight, discernment and even empathy with the Other, making our own values sacred and cursing those of others. And if the elites aren’t very enlightened, they’ll plot the status quo for as long as possible. In a plural society, social links grow defiant when the sense of entitlement trickles down. On the other hand, the “rebellious” son expresses some truth about the fact that younger generations, equipped with new bearings, are often more prone to be more open-minded.

Ni chaînes ni maîtres is not a masterpiece, but it is a laudable attempt to offer us some riveting time. Jumping off the cliff to die as the climax of the ending, rather than enduring the slow death of the soul in captivity, brings a dignified relief. A deafening silence settled over the audience as the credits rolled as if to express liberation.  A deserving ovation followed. French audiences, and many Mauritians, will clearly be more shaken by the movie’s perspective, which breaks with historical taboos. As for other viewers, the perspective may be “trivialised” by countless narratives about the ambivalent legacy of other colonisers.