Guava Island Showcases Capitalism through Color and Sound

Title: Guava Island

Studio: Amazon Studios

Director: Hiro Murai

Main Actors: Donald Glover (Deni Maroon), Rihanna (Kofi Novia), Nonso Anozie (Red), Leticia Wright (Yara Love)

Run Time: 55 minutes, 41 seconds

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

! SPOILER ALERT !

Is it a romance? Is it an adventure? Is it a comedy? Is it a musical? Based on a story by famous actor, comedian and musician (to name a few titles) Donald Glover, Guava Island is a combination of many genres that creates a short, sweet and absolutely magical movie experience.

Co-written by Stephen Glover, Ibra Ake, Jamal Olori and Fam Udeorji, and presenting the feature-directorial debut of Hiro Murai– who has collaborated with Donald Glover several times in the past– the 55-minute-long film premiered on April 11 at Coachella and was released two days later on Amazon Prime Video.

While it was filmed mostly in Cuba, the story takes place on a fictional Afro-Caribbean island. It begins with the soft sound of waves and then quickly turns upbeat and animated to introduce the characters. The colorful animation continues as the voice of famous musician, actress and co-star Rihanna narrates a bedtime story starting with the line, “A very, very long time ago….”

She tells the origin story of Guava Island as a tale of love and war and how they, inevitably, intertwine. The fictional island hosts a rare clay worm that produces beautiful blue silk. Although this seems like a trivial detail, the blue silk becomes the basis of the island’s economy. As the paradise was once untouched by man’s hand, capitalistic greed took over by a family and, eventually, a single dictator, by the name of “Red”.

Red overpowers all the islanders and turns them into either factory workers or port workers for his company, Red’s Cargo. Life for the people of Guava consists of work, and outside dreams are just that; dreams.

Rihanna, known as Kofi Novia, finishes the bedtime story by sharing her love story with well-known Guava-Island radio host Deni Maroon, played by Donald Glover. After five minutes, the animation leaves the screen and we see a live-action Kofi lying in bed, eventually awakened by Deni playing the guitar in their living room. After briefly discussing a concert Deni has planned for that night, he heads off on his way to work. On the way, he is greeted by and greets many of his fellow-islanders; the mutual care is obvious, and it becomes clear that he is a beloved member of the community.

A large part of his popularity is his radio personality, which brings music into the old-fashioned radios, seemingly, everyone on the island has. One of his biggest fans is Yara Love, portrayed by up-and-coming actress Leticia Wright, who turns the volume up as her and Kofi sew blue, silk clothes amongst other women in a bland factory. Yara starts to talk about the upcoming concert, and mention of this seems to make Kofi wary, rather than excited as you might expect the girlfriend—as insinuated through her last name Novia, meaning girlfriend in Spanish—of the star to feel. She even mentions how she doesn’t think Red will approve of the event, as it might affect how people work the next day (this reveals itself as a big moment of foreshadowing).

Another person who isn’t happy about Deni’s concert is a coworker at his job at the port, who says he needs to work hard so he can make it to America; what he describes as the place where dreams come true. Deni quickly disagrees and says that America is just like Guava Island; based on a capitalistic system controlled by owners who exploit workers. He goes even further by singing his point. This is where the musical aspect of the film shines through and Childish Gambino—Donald Glover’s musical moniker—fans everywhere get as animated as the first few minutes of the movie. Deni breaks out in song and dance along with other port workers in an industrial-sounding rendition of Childish Gambino’s iconic song and music video This is America, which better illustrates Deni’s point.

Of some of This is America’s lyrics, this line stands out:

“we just wanna party,

 party just for you,

we just want the money,

money just for you,

I know you wanna party,

party just for free.”

While the lyrics have many meanings, one meaning that shines through is Donald Glover’s, and Deni’s, dream to be able to have control over one’s happiness and to live life freely, without repercussions. This dream was laid out when Kofi narrated the bedtime story, saying a part of Deni’s dream is to unite the people of Guava Island through music. However, under Red, he doesn’t have the freedom to do so.

This is cemented when two men approach Deni after his This is America performance and put a bag over his head and push him into a van. It is soon found out that they took him to Red’s mansion, where Red and him make small-talk until a deal is laid out. Red offers Deni $10,000 to cancel the concert and to leave the island.

Of course, Deni doesn’t take the offer despite Red’s violent persistence.

At this point, it is almost time for the concert. The audience follows Kofi as she walks through an alley on her way, stumbling upon a lurking Red who tells her to tell Deni to “break a leg.” As she gets closer to the concert, the audience sees stunning blue outfits made by the islanders; each showcasing individual expression through glitter, feathers and tassels. People are already playing their own music, mostly on drums and rattles, and cheering even before Deni enters the stage.

Deni walks into the light and dedicates his performance to life and tells the audience that he hopes they feel as free as they possibly can as he sings. His performance is silly and lively, and he maintains a passionate expression on his face; all of which are signature to Childish Gambino as a real-life performer.

But during the performance, an onlooking Kofi sees a man in a mask not like the rest. She walks closer, trying to get a better look, and which each step the drum beat intensifies and the man’s arms slowly raise…eventually revealing that he has a gun and is aiming it at the stage. Kofi desperately screams Deni’s name until the sound stops and Deni sees her through the crowd. Although movie-watchers can tell the music is still playing in the films world, the film itself remains silent until a loud gunshot goes off.

The bullet misses Deni, and he goes running behind the stage, through the island’s small streets. He continues to run until he finally stops when he hears and sees a blue bird chirping in an abandoned building. Unfortunately, this was a mistake on his part…as the gunman can be seen behind him, eventually shooting Deni in the back, and walking up to his fallen body to shoot him once more.

The screen goes black.

The audience sees Red humming and chuckling in his office. He then is driven to the factory to find no one is there. Baffled, he’s driven to the port and, again, no one is to be found. While he’s at the port, he hears light drumming in the distance. He walks closer to town and is met with a sea of islanders in bright blue, mourning Deni in an open casket. They lift the casket and parade down the street, singing and dancing, and pass Red; completely unphased by the ruthless dictator.

Soon, Kofi walks up to him, dressed like royalty in royal blue, and simply says, “We got our day.”

What hasn’t been mentioned is that at one point during the film it is revealed that Kofi is pregnant, yet never got to tell Deni. The end is a narration of her retelling the bedtime story to their child, saying that his dream came true because he was able to unite the community through his music.

In almost every respect, Guava Island is a stand-out film from the stand-out, real-life character that is Donald Glover/Childish Gambino. Like the artist, the film is creative, colorful and multifaceted. The singing and dancing are exactly what any Childish Gambino fan could expect from him; including some delightful Afro-Caribbean influences. The simple dialogue lets the exquisite settings and sounds do the storytelling; and for less than an hour, a lot was said.

This story would’ve enlivened famous philosopher, political economist and sociologist Karl Marx, who theorized that humans are special in the way that we manifest our humanity through our passions and our work; therefore, exploited labor through capitalism is the most dehumanizing phenomenon our society experiences. Glover made this same point, and he did it effortlessly (and in fewer words than Marx’s iconic book about the same topic called Capital).

Although an impressive film for an overall amateur team, it does have it’s not-so-great points.

Its biggest downfall is actually what some would consider to be its biggest asset: Rihanna. Her character seems to play no real role in showing Deni’s wonderous and lovable nature and only confuses the overall sound narrative. She has little dialogue and only shows deep emotion in the concert scene when her boyfriend is nearly killed.

While Deni’s dream was manifested shortly before and after his death, Kofi’s dream to leave the island with her lover was killed the instant he was. Kofi leaves the film with a smirk on her face; however, how happy can the audience expect her to be when the dream she stated at the beginning of the film was never met?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, how is it that they cast a nine-time Grammy Award-winning singer and didn’t have her sing once. While Rihanna has proven she is both an outstanding artist and actress, this role did her no justice. And, in all honesty, the story didn’t need a love interest for Deni at all. His love was and remained with the people of Guava island, and was barely showcased through his relationship with Kofi.

Also, did the creators of Guava Island truly not think that the audience would be concerned for the future of the people of Guava while they’re still in Red’s hands? While the last scene is lovely, it’s a happy-go-lucky and misled representation of the realities of capitalism, which are clearly described in the majority of the film.

Other than those factors, watching Guava Island is 55 minutes of pure fun and enlightenment. Especially since there isn’t much like it out there, and considering the fact that Glover is planning on releasing more short films in the future, it’s kind of a must-see. And while the death of the main character, who is the embodiment of freedom, may seem like a pessimistic sign that there is no leisure in this kind of system of control…the audience is still left with a message of hope.