Moemoea (1980)

Handling

Visually evocative and not only because of the Tahitian setting, this engaging story by femme director Dominique Arnaud starts off with a man looking through the bars of his prison cell out at the landscape beyond. His reverie ends when he suddenly subdues the guard who has come to bring him his meal and in a flash, he is out and free. Various adventures await him within the town and with its people but in the end, he heads off into the jungle. He spends some time building a house and seems content to prefer the company of his radio and the animals around him to the townspeople. Then one day his sharp ears pick up a sound that could threaten his new-found life.