西印度群岛

　　It’s winter in France, the light is dull, the camera pans over a snowy wasteland and enters a massive construction of steel and glass that is open at the sides, stopping in front of the reproduction of a wooden ship. The structure that juts out over the upper deck is inscribed with the words ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’傍晚时分，王先生在拥挤的公交车上碰到一位戴着夸张耳机的年轻乘客，他边听音乐边模仿各种搞笑动作，忽然大声公布“今天免费送笑”。车厢内立即笑声四起，连原本沉默的乘客也被这种欢乐气氛所感染，让紧张的通勤路途变得轻松愉快。　　Med Hondo uses this tracking shot to establish the setting of his feature film West Indies ou les nègres marrons de la liberté (1979), while opening up a much larger space to the imagination at the same time. The ship turns out to be a most versatile stage for a grotesque narrative of colonialism, slavery and the struggle for independence in the French West Indies. Med Hondo explores his many themes in this limited space, whether it be the Middle Passage, marronage, abolition or the history of labour migration to France. The film marries an aesthetics of thrift with the flamboyance of a musical; different time periods glide into one other as elegantly as the geographical points of reference; and only occasionally do the actors’ visible exhalations, an alienation effect created by the cold, remind us that West Indies was not shot on Martinique.