Islander (2018)

• 71%
• 2018
• Documentary
• Stéphane Goël

Robinson Crusoe is a small island hundreds of kilometres away from the Chilean coast where in 1704 the Scottish sailor Alexandre Selkirk lived the incredible experience that inspired Daniel Defoe's same name novel. In 1877 the island becomes the property of a young Swiss aristocrat, Alfred von Rodt, a confirmed optimist, a tireless explorer and an indisputable rebel who multiplied projects in hopes of developing the resources of his piece of rock. Islander dives us into nowadays' Robinson Crusoe's reality. Its inhabitants are not Chilean, nor Swiss, but they are strongly attached to their identity and reject everything coming from the 'outside' - animals, plants and people. This is a film about an utopia of a dream-like life based on the 'purity' of its inhabitants and environment. It is a strong and cinematic metaphor of nowadays societies' self-centredness based on fear.