aralyth’s review published on Letterboxd:
march around the world 2026 | 29/30 | 🇻🇺 Vanuatu
Amid gorgeous landscape shots of the volcanic island in Vanuatu that gives this film its name, Tanna tells the story of Wawa (Marie Wawa) and Dain (Mungau Dain), two young lovers from the traditional indigenous village of Yakel who are thrust apart when Wawa is promised as a bride to a rival village. This isn't quite Romeo and Juliet - though the comparison there is obvious, Tanna is apparently based on a true story of star-cross'd lovers on the island in the '80s. There's always a fear with films like this that the filmmakers are (perhaps inadvertently) distorting the stories of the people their films are about. Tanna using a real story as its basis and featuring the actual inhabitants of Yakel Village as its cast means that this hopefully isn't the case. I'll never know for sure, but I do hope that the voices of the people of Yakel Village were authentically captured here.