by Dr. Anderson Reynolds
St. Lucian actress and movie producer, Mathurine Emmanuel, was born and raised in the rural hamlet of Desruisseaux, Micoud, as the sixth of twelve children of Gerald Charles St. Ange and Mary Francita St. Ange. She has made five full-length movies—Tears in the Valley, Ribbons of Blue, Troubled Waters, Nana’s Paradise, and the soon-to-be-released Shantaye’s World. With this many featured films, Emmanuel has emerged as St. Lucia’s premier movie maker, as such few would disagree that she has single-handedly pioneered the movie industry in St. Lucia.
Her debut movie, Tears in the Valley, dramatizes the dire consequences of substance abuse and sexual promiscuity. In it a young man, pursuing a life of infidelity and cocaine use, dies of aids and a broken heart. Emmanuel didn’t go public with this movie, because, as she revealed in an interview, as her first film project the movie wasn’t up to standards and she wanted to put her best foot forward.
Tears in the Valley was followed by Ribbons of Blue, and apparently this time around Emmanuel had produced a movie she could proudly announce to the world. As the first or one of the first featured films released and made by a St. Lucian, Ribbons of Blue is considered a ground-breaking movie. In it the multi-talented Emmanuel (actress, director, screenwriter) delivers a riveting performance in her portrayal of a single mother’s struggles and sacrifices to raise an ungrateful daughter who is ashamed of her mother’s humble status. Regardless, the mother uses her lifetime savings to send her daughter overseas to school. The movie reaches a high point when shamed and unable to complete her education, the daughter hits rock bottom and is forced to return home (in the manner of the Prodigal Son) to her long-suffering mother’s welcoming arms.
The lessons of Ribbons of Blue are clear. Human relations in general and family relations in particular are to be valued above position and material things. Ribbons of Blue has received plenty of public adulation. Many fans unbashfully admitted that Ribbons of Blue made them cry.
A reviewer characterized the movie as follows. “Set in rural St. Lucia, Ribbons of Blue is a heartwarming and poignant movie about the power and durability of a mother’s love. The movie brings joy to the heart and tears to the eyes. It is a must-see for all lovers of St. Lucian and Caribbean culture, and all those who have ever doubted the depth and tenacity of parental love.”
And as proof that all this praise wasn’t without merit, Ribbons of Blue was the winner of the 2003 M&C Award for best film, and the 2005 New York Independent Film Festival Award Winner for Best Director.
And to think that Emmanuel met so challenges in the editing phase of the movie, including computer breakdowns and nearly losing the movie files, that she contemplated abandoning the project altogether and moving on to her next film. Well, lucky for us she stayed the course.
Responding to all the fanfare, public adulation, and awards that Ribbons of Blue attracted, Emmanuel said that the public has seen nothing yet because her next movie, Troubled Waters, would put Ribbons of Blue to shame. Well, while the critics would agree that Ribbons of Blue is destined to become a classic, they may also agree that the filmmaker’s assertion about her third movie was no idle boast.
Because with just as compelling a performance as in Ribbons of Blue, and with masterful support from co-star, Kenty Rambatt, in Troubled Waters Emmanuel brings us an astoundingly beautiful yet shockingly disturbing film about the devastating effects of child abuse and the healing powers of love. The movie leaves one with the disquieting feeling of the vulnerability of children to preying adults, and sends the message loud and clear that parents can never be too careful about the safety of their children and that it takes a whole community to raise and keep a child safe.
In Emmanuel’s third movie, Nana’s Paradise, a young man overcomes extreme poverty, a dysfunctional home, peer ridicule, and death in his family to embark on an epic journey that takes him to England on an island scholarship. There he overcomes cultural shock, the bitter London cold, and homesickness to return home triumphantly and do right by his mother, Nana, who, facing desperate poverty, spousal abuse, and infidelity, was single-handedly responsible for holding her family together.
Nana’s Paradise is a testament to the strength, resilience, and triumph of the human spirit over all odds. Joy and laughter come with equal doses of pain and sadness. The movie will make you weep, laugh and celebrate all at the same time.
Although Nana’s Paradise includes heart felt performances by Keddy Emmanuel, comical, exuberant and moving performances by Eli Kelvin Peters, Rebecca Chitolie, Shannice Louis, and Nicole Augustin; and strong performances by John Philipson, it is Mathurine Emmanuel’s dramatic flair and mesmerizing performance that bind the movie together and set it apart as one of a kind.
Emmanuel’s soon-to-be released fifth movie, Shantaye’s World, presents Shantaye as a sassy, precocious and irrepressible child growing up carefree in idyllic 1950s rural St. Lucia, surrounded by a caring and loving community and circle of friends and the doting love of her father and paternal grandmother. But as Shantaye enters her teen years, tragedy struck and punched a hole in her idyllic world.
Nonetheless, in the middle of the tragedy, as if by magic, she finds true love. But it is a forbidden love opposed by both her father and her community and her beau’s mother. So not unexpectedly, in an attempt to break up this bond of love, her father ships her to London where she became part of the mass West Indian post World War II migration to the UK. A phenomenon that was coined the “Windrush Generation” in reference to one of the vessels—MV Empire Windrush—that brought the West Indians to their new home.
However, just when Shantaye was coming to terms with her new home and wondering whether she will ever reunite with her beau, tragedy struck at home, forcing her to return home. But, the only question is, has she returned too late to rekindle her love?
Shantaye’s World is a delightful and engrossing coming-of-age and love story that, like Emmanuel’s previous movies, is full of laughter. It provides a window into how life used to be in St. Lucia’s not too distant past. By capturing some of the emigration experiences of the Windrush generation, the movie is timely because recently the UK government was mired in scandal when it erroneously deemed members of the Windrush Generation illegal immigrants and threatened them with deportation. In Shantaye’s World, history has come full circle.
Perhaps, recognizing the significance of the movie as a period piece, Emmanuel didn’t stop with just a movie. Unlike her previous movies, she wrote a novel to accompany Shantaye’s World. The novel, also called Shantaye’s World, is set for official launch on June 26, 2022, in New York. But it is already available for purchase on Amazon. The movie, however, may take a while longer to go public because it is now making the rounds at international film festivals.
The World of Mathurine Emmanuel
Ribbons of Blue captures a mother’s unconditional love and sacrifice for an ungrateful daughter and how that undying love eventually turns the daughter around, Troubled Waters demonstrates the power of love to heal the most broken of spirits, Nana’s Paradise is a testament that parental love can triumph over adversity and wickedness, and Shantaye’s World puts to the test the notion that true love can heal and conquer all.
Thus, Mathurine Emmanuel’s movies can be described as a world in which bad things happen and mistakes come with a heavy price tag; yet the tragic is buttered with laughter, plenty of laughter; and, above all, love, family ties, and community support can always be counted on to save the day.”
If you were to spend an afternoon in the world of Mathurine Emmanuel, you should expect delight, tears, and laughter aplenty, but you should also expect to walk away more fortified to deal with the challenges of life.
Dr. Anderson Reynolds is an economist and an award-winning author of five books. He is considered one of St. Lucia’s most prominent and prolific writers and a foremost authority on its socioeconomic history.