Guava Island: A Musical Insurrection from the Periphery

Guava Island, a 56-minute musical feast directed by Hiro Murai, starring Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) and Rihanna, tells the story of a young man who tries to break the chain of exploitation by his music while being a host to Childish Gambino’s songs. The film has a mesmerizing setting, a beautiful cast with an adorable chemistry, and a strong message throughout this 56-minute journey.

Spoiler Alert: This article has spoilers beyond this point. If you really don’t want to get spoilers, go and watch it from Amazon Prime Video, it is only 56 minutes!

Even though it is not explicitly told where exactly Guava Island is, the audience may guess that it may be located in the Caribbean. The island experiences an economic exploitation similar to several countries that are exploited by the West, which can be called peripheral. Guava is famous for its endemic silkworm, but the silk produced by this insect is directly exported to other countries through a despotic power called Red Cargo. Red Cargo exploits the islanders up to their hilt during the production of the silk, and the vast majority of the country’s economy is in the company’s hands. Some of the islanders dream of migrating to better places like the USA, where they think they will have unimaginable opportunities.

The islanders don’t have any union rights under this system of exploitation; they don’t even have a day off. This “day off” raises the main conflict between Deni (Glover) and Red Cargo (the owner of the Red Cargo Company). Deni wants to organize a music festival for the islanders to enjoy, but Red does not want the festival to be held because he thinks the islanders will not go to work the next day. Then, Red shows his opposition to the festival in various forms of violence: He kidnaps Deni, offers a bribe, and finally breaks his guitar and beats him. Deni tries to ignore these violent attitudes and does not cancel the music festival in order to hold his ground, so to speak. But things will not go well. During the festival, Deni is attempted to be killed and then, he gets killed after a few minutes of chase. However, the movie does not end at that point. The very next day, no one produces silk in the factory, nor is it packing cargo in the warehouse. Everyone is at Deni’s funeral. While Red looks at the crowd with anger and confusion, Kofi (Rihanna), in her blue mourning dress, comes towards him and says, “We got our day.”

The third star: Colors

Guava Island stands out with its color symbolism. The use of color begins with the story of the endemic insect of the island: The insect produces blue silk and then Red Cargo captures and exploits the blue silk. The color red, as it is known, represents power, violence and danger, making it a suitable choice for the Red Cargo brand. On the other hand, blue is heavily associated with freedom in the film. The color blue draws attention in the scene where Deni is taken to Red’s office. At the office, a blue bird in a cage catches Deni’s attention: The bird was eating a red, fruit-like bait, but could not escape from the cage. In other words, the islanders are economically dependent on Red Cargo, as Red Cargo owns everything from the radio channel to silk-production and they actually have no place to escape, except their dreams.

Another point that draws attention on the office scene is that Red wears an orange outfit when talking to Deni. Since orange is the opposite color of blue, this choice of color can be interpreted as Deni’s opposition to the ongoing concept of freedom that they have. In the following minutes of the film, we see that the people of the island who go to the festival wear all in blue and dance with joy. All of the islanders live in their fantasy of freedom, just like the bird in Red’s office. During the pursuit of Deni, the audience encounters the murder of Deni right after the blue bird is seen as it had escaped from its cage and become free. Now, Deni was the free blue bird and was dismissed from the island with the death of him; in a way its soul was liberated. However, Deni’s spirit is spread to the islanders as they got their day off. As we all know, every rebellion leaves a soul that is kept alive behind. Deni’s minor-scale insurrection may result in his death, but his musical spirit, which kept the islanders alive on the radio, in the warehouse, in Kofi’s heart and soul, in short everywhere, was spread to the islanders.

Final Verdict:

Even though it is streamed on Amazon Prime Video, a platform owned by Amazon (which can be considered one of the Red Cargos of today’s economy), Guava Island is beautifully shot and directed. The use of music, colors, setting and costumes are amazing and purposeful. If you want to watch a serious piece of work that depicts the harsh reality of the core-periphery relationship, I would suggest Darwin’s Nightmare. But if you want to have a good time, listen some Childish Gambino songs, envy Rihanna and Donald Glover’s chemistry, bridle at Rihanna for not singing even a single note, and count how many talents does Donald Glover have, you should watch Guava Island right away.

Resources

Murai, H. (2019). Guava Island [Motion Picture]. United States: New Regency Productions.