The subject, Robert Saint-Rose dreams of going to the moon, dreams of being the first Martinican to step foot on it. And so he builds a spaceshuttle. He consults with friends and professors (albeit an English professor), he calculates and he designs and it is this energy that is reminiscent of our secret yearnings and our abandoned potentiality, as Patrick Chamoiseau (or the character of Patrick Chamoiseau) describes.
The scientist (I forget his name) or again the character of the scientist validates Saint-Rose's aspirations by explaining them as theories that we have not succeeded at "as yet", which effectively redeems Saint-Rose from appearing to be a fool to being a dreamer, a man before his time who believes in things that have not yet been proved, in things that have not yet been accepted by the greater public.
Primarily a tribute to Cesaire's poetry, Elie-dit-Cosaque aims as well to express a feel for the West Indies, the spirit of its people and the relationship between France and the DOM-TOMs. He fulfils as such with the storytelling skill of the interviewees, with the Martinican hope for seeing beyond the island and most importantly, with audience members moved to read Cesaire.
We are dared to think again about the thin line between fiction and truth and enlivened to possess as much belief and determination as our Robert Saint-Rose, who though fictional is now listed in some sites as among
men of achievement in Martinique. "And why not?" shrugs Elie-dit Cosaque.
'Why not?' exactly as the film concludes with a quotation from Jorge Luis Borges;
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