Director- Jacques Boumedil
Year- 2005
Type- Drama
Main actors:
Micheline Mona and Max Telephe
1)
The main characters granddaughter narrates the story over the radio. Hermansia and Tiquitaque travel to St-Pierre with a group of other plantation workers looking for a new life and they come to a cliff and see the volcano and the harbor. They walk around the city amazed by urban the atmosphere. They are particularly interested in the jewelry and other material goods that are sold in the city center.
2)
Hermansia - Hermansia is a black plantation worker who moves to St-Pierre to pursue her passion to be a singer. At first she is reluctant to embrace the city but eventually her music becomes popular and up lifts her community. Her lyrics capture her desire to live life to the fullest and rise up from the oppression the black community faces from that French and Europeans on the island. Tiquitaque- Tiquitaque is Hermansia’s husband and is also a musician. He is excited to be in a new city but disappointed that wealthy individuals will not hire him and his wife to perform at their social functions. The upper class does not like the rural black music that the two play, especially the drums which were popular among the slaves in the plantations. However, Tiquitaqu learns to play the clarinet and develops his own style of music that is popular among the upper class and lower class alike. The Creole music is high tempo and inspires movement and dance.
3)
The film takes place in St-Pierre, Martinique.
4)
At first Hermansia and Tiquitaque are not successful as musicians so Hermansia works as a maid and Tiquitaque works on the docks. Hermansia buys Tiquitaque a clarinet and he develops his own style of music and is hired play at parties. At these parties he normally would play the waltz and polka and other European style music. Tiquitaque starts to play a style of Creole on his clarinet that inspires people around the town and