In progress

Between me and the Ocean

Kader (37) is a fisherman on the island of Nosy Be and fights for bare survival on his pirogue. There are fewer and fewer fish near the coast. Climate change is to blame, but mainly and acutely the Chinese fishing trawlers that empty the sea off the coasts of Madagascar with illegal fishing methods. This forces the local fishermen to row far out to sea to avoid coming home with empty nets. Time and again, his friends disappear into the sea. Kader, a man with fine survival instincts, struggles with the danger. Will he one day take that risk too?

Translated from Malagasy, Nosy Be means “Big Island”. At first sight a paradise on earth, poverty reigns on the island. Wealthy Frenchmen and Italian jet-setters take advantage of this situation and enjoy life. The big luxury hotels on Nosy Be do not cooperate with the local fishermen, but are supplied from outside. The local fishermen suffer from this. Again and again they feel sadness and anger towards the “Wazahs” (meaning stranger, mostly white people are called like that). The islanders were once considered very friendly and peaceful by nature. Today, many resign themselves to the situation. Cheap alcohol is often accepted as a ticket to emptiness. Kader, too, repeatedly runs the risk of wanting to dissolve his worries in alcohol. His character and his unique life story, however, ensure that he always does his utmost not to see himself as a victim of external circumstances. His dream is to obtain a French passport and to prove to the rich Parisian family that “adopted” him as a child from Djibouti onto their luxury yacht and then repudiated him ten years later that he has not let life and its strokes of fate get him down.