Personal and political on a Dominica sugar plantation

Daniel Nelson

Sugar Island is a barnstorming attempt to entertain and inform at the same time.

Director Johanne Gomez Terrero delivers both strands with lashings of colour, drama and symbolism.

The central personal story is driven by the pregnancy of a teenager, Makenya, her badly-informed actions to secure an abortion and the ensuing struggle to keep her life on track. It comes from the heart: says director Johanné Gómez Terrero (“an Afro-diasporic artist who positions her work within a Caribbean and decolonial framework”): “My niece's pregnancy at 13 plunged our family into crisis, in a country where abortion is illegal. Despite efforts to find alternatives, time ran out, forcing us to accept the pregnancy. 

“This event reflects a broader generational pattern of early motherhood with an absent fatherhood, wrapped in societal shame and uncertainty.”

The background political story comes from the plight of plantation labourers on the island of Dominica. They are mainly undocumented and thus easily exploited Haitian workers.

Personal and political mesh through the struggle of Makenya’s grandfather to keep his company-owned home and pension, stymied and symbolised by the repeated appearance of an obdurate supervisor on a white horse.

Flashes of the history of this body of migrant workers, from slavery to contemporary capitalist control, are acted out by a theatrical troupe. 

Descriibing the situation in  Dominica, Gómez Terrero  says the sugar industry exploits Black bodies and perpetuates racial divides: “By juxtaposing past uprisings against the horrors of slavery with present-day struggles, the film emphasises the enduring role of spirituality in liberation movements. Makenya's journey into teenage motherhood serves as a window into systemic issues, intertwining social consciousness with ancestral wisdom.” 

The injustices of the system are not history. The quest for Black identity and justice persists, she adds, “urging a return to our roots and the nurturing embrace of maternal heritage."

This bare outline makes the film sound stolid and wordy. It isn’t. Terrero goes at it full tilt, mashing up the themes, tossing in eyeball-jolting colours, psychedelic voudou and raw emotion. It’s a blast.

Sugar Island is showing at the BFI London Film Festival on 18 October (6.30pm) and 20 October (5.45pm). Info: BFI Festival