Sugar Cane Alley

dramaThis moving drama of dreams and degradation on a Martinique sugar cane plantation won international acclaim for Euzhan Palcy, its twenty-eight year old director. The story, told from a young boy's point-of-view, is about a hard-working grandmother named Adamantine (Ma Tine, for short), and her dream of keeping her mischievous, but gifted, grandson out of the fields through education. As we follow the boy and his friends in innocent play among the broken-down shacks, watch his friendship with the figure-whittling old Medouze mature, see through his eyes the racial injustice all around him--we too are afforded a rewarding education. Sugar Cane Alley is a powerful statement about 'man's inhumanity to man'; more powerful because it makes its point through subtlety and understated performance. We care deeply about this adamantine (yet tender) grandmother and her trouble- prone but sensitive grandson. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review--November 16, 2004--New Yorker, 107 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, $29.95--Making its debut on DVD, 1983's Sugar Cane Alley is presented in a solid widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital stereo (with occasional disappointing tinny sound and hiss) and no extras. Bottom line: still a powerful film, this is highly recommended.]