Quand les étoiles rencontrent la mer

Born on the day of a solar eclipse — an ill omen — a child is marked by local belief as a destructive force. Left in a cattle pen overnight as a test, he survives and is rescued by a woman who flees with him to the city. The wound he sustains gives him a permanent limp and the name Kapila. Growing up marginalised and isolated, he crosses paths, across years, with an unsettling blind woman whose presence seems tied to his fate. Rajaonarivelo's second feature is a film about destiny and its refusal — the space between what is foretold and what is chosen, shot across Madagascar's landscapes with a visual precision that is never decorative. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Istanbul International Film Festival.