Rue Cases Nègres

Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction.

I know nothing about Martinique, but imagine that what this film depicts is not all that far off from the world of Haiti, which is more familiar to me. The overall story seems the same: poor folks who must work the sugar cane fields to survive. Not quite slaves, but not all that much better off.

The film shows the way out as education, which is fair. But the only real way out is to leave. It is a story bigger than Martinique. We see it in the slums, we see it on Indian reservations. No amount of education can make a home more bearable if the home has little to offer. It's an awful conflict.