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 Jerry W. Leach
& Gary Kildea, |
On the Trobriand Islands off the coast of Papua-New Guinea, the European missionaries introduced cricket at the beginning of the century as a substitute for the conflict between two local groups. In contrast with India and the Caribbean where the game is played according to the original rules and where there was pleasure to be found in outdoing the teacher, the Trobriand Islanders have adapted this thoroughly British sport to their local environment. A whole new game came into being, responding to the inventive mechanisms of mimicry, transformation and parody. The large teams, four to five times bigger than the British model, include all the men in one village clan. They parade in colourful outfits to the host village, and during the breaks they perform stylized triumphal dances : entire choreographies, almost like numbers from musicals, with an unexpected symbolism that quite evidently refers to the colonial past. The exuberant players imitate with ease the American bombers of the Second World War. In this way they transform the commotion of war into an infectious ritual. This film is the ultimate test case for those who abhor exegetic commentaries : a mass of information provides a context for just about every detail of this delirious return to the displaced colonial past. This is probably why the film is so popular in the West : the inventiveness of the Trobriand Islanders relieves feelings of colonial guilt. |
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 Gender Crash |
 My Crasy Life |
 The Simple Song |
 Une Journée dans une Famille Belge |
 Les Maîtres Fous |
 Shut the Fuck Up |
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