Island of the Hungry Ghosts – Films

Gabrielle Brady
Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, United States | 2018 | 94 min
International Premiere
Languages : English, French, Farsi, Mandarin
Subtitles : English, French

Buyens-Chagoll Award

Located off the coast of Indonesia, the Australian territory of Christmas Island is inhabited by migratory crabs travelling in their millions from the jungle towards the ocean, in a movement that has been provoked by the full moon for hundreds of thousands of years. Poh Lin is a trauma therapist who lives with her family in this place of hostile and wild landscapes—one of the last places on the planet to be discovered. Every day, she talks with the asylum seekers held indefinitely in a high-security detention centre, attempting, relentlessly, to support them in a situation that is as unbearable as its outcome is uncertain. Comparing the natural migration with the chaotic and tragic migration of humans, subject to the constant metamorphoses of the decision-making structures, Gabrielle Brady undoubtedly succeeds in evoking a challenge that is much greater than that of the microcosm she is reporting on. With its fictional appearance, Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a film whose eloquence is most particularly based on its skilful construction and on shots composed with great delicacy.
Emilie Bujès