An appreciation - ‘Aldabra once upon an island’ |25 April 2016

On Thursday April 21, I felt very privileged to have been one of the guests invited to view the first screening in Seychelles of the 3D film on Aldabra entitled, Aldabra once upon an Island, at the newly-renovated Deepam’s Cinema, La Salle d’Oeuvres, in Victoria.

Certainly I do feel proud and happy to have been there in the light of the support and encouragement which I have given over recent times to Petr Keller, the producer of the film; Steve Lichtag, the director and Michael Havas, the scriptwriter.

This is certainly a film which will bring into international awareness the geographical position and dimension of the Seychelles archipelago, which now claims a maritime space as huge as and perhaps even larger than Germany (East and West together).

At this age of life, I would fall asleep one or two times when viewing a film which last for as long as 1 ½ hours – but that was not the case on Thursday evening, as my brain was kept in a state of alertness as I travelled through the wonderland and the wonderseas of the Aldabra Atoll. In a world full of turmoil and bad news, it was great to escape to the peaceful Aldabra to play with the tortoises and crabs and to swim with and among a great variety of sharks against the colourful background of coral reefs and fishes of all sizes.

Indeed such a film was overdue and congratulations to the Czech producers for their vision, for their entrepreneurship, for the hard work they put to produce this imaginative film about Aldabra. It is ironical to think that these gentlemen from a landlocked Nation would have come up with the idea for such a film before producers from more maritime-oriented nations like France, UK and USA – signs of a people with imagination, initiative and energy.

In the week that it was first shown in Prague, the capital of Czech Republic, Aldabra once upon an Island was rated as the second-best film of the week, beaten only by the new James Bond film which had been released also that week. As a film critic put it – “The tortoises of Aldabra did not do that bad a job comparing their speed to that of the Jaguar vehicle which James Bond was using.”

I understand that normally an average film shown within the Czech Republic would justify some 5 or 6 weeks of screening. Aldabra once upon an Island hasnow been shown in the cinemas of the Czech Republic for over 17 weeks and the indication is that of more and more interest. You can imagine its international impact when it is released in the USA, China, India and other Nations.

This film certainly appeals not only to adults but also to children who are captivated by a production which has the element of entertainment very much in perspective and mind.

This point was of course made categorically clear from the outset by the producers. This is not a documentary film about Aldabra. Obviously those who expected the film to be revealing about the history of the Atolls would be left somewhat disappointed.

However, the Czech producers did speak about this being their first film about Aldabra. There is of course great materials for a second film which would tell the story of the fight to save Aldabra from being turned into a military base – the fight in which I was personally involved alongside such persons as the late great photographer, Tony Beamish, who wrote Aldabra Alone; his cousin Sir Tufton Beamish, MP, who made a lot of noises in the British Parliament and the late Lars-Eric Lindblad, the pioneer of eco-tourism in the world, when we fought with the support of conservationists in the United Kingdom and the USA, to save Aldabra from becoming a military base.

Unfortunately, where the birds and tortoises of Aldabra won – the inhabitants of Diego Garcia suffered as they were made to vacate their archipelago following the Anglo-American decision to build their military complex on Chagos. Here is a story of where “might is right” is prevailing over “right is might” – an interesting story to tell.

James R. Mancham