With the acclaimed and award-winning LGBTQ drama "120 Beats Per Minute", director Robin Campillo achieved an international breakthrough.
Six years later, he is back, now with the drama "Red Island", which takes place on Madagascar in the early 1970s.
The East African island has a natural place in Robin Campillo's life, since he lived there as a child.
This is my memory where I don't want to see colonialism as such, but as it is seen through a child's eyes, says Campillo to TT.
"120 Beats Per Minute" was about homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic in early 1990s Paris. The film won several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes. However, this did not make it easier to secure financing for "Red Island".
It made me more famous, but it didn't give me more money. But that's okay, I don't really care about success. Making films is not a necessity for me, it's my job.
Becomes a superhero
When Robin Campillo grew up, his father worked in the military. This meant that the family was constantly moving, and the last time they ended up on Madagascar, which was then a French colony. The film's main character is a young boy, and through his eyes, we see how the adults handle the problems that arise.
He also has dreams, where he becomes a kind of superhero – in the film, these are animated sequences.
I didn't do any research when I wrote the script, I wanted my memories to come back and the story to form from that, says Robin Campillo.
In my memories, there was a kind of dream logic, shaped by sounds and experiences, which he saved bits of to later be able to weave into a narrative fabric.
I felt like I had always saved my memories with the intention of using them to make a film one day. They were stored inside me and waiting for me to become mature enough.
Paradise built on dominance
The flashbacks made him realize how his stay on Madagascar had shaped him in many ways.
I realized that a paradise is always based on dominance. There is no happiness without anxiety. We lived in a dream, in a lie. I realized that you can be innocent in a cruel system.
Robin Campillo's mother passed away a few years ago, and he regrets not asking her about life on Madagascar – there is so much he will never know.
My father is alive, but he is so right-wing that we haven't had any contact for 25 years.
Name: Robin Campillo.
Age: 61 years.
Lives: In Paris.
Occupation: Screenwriter, director.
Previous films: "Eastern Boys", "120 Beats Per Minute".
Current: With "Red Island", which will have its Swedish cinema premiere on July 5.
