Dir. Michael Andrianaly. France/Madagascar. 2019, 72 mins. In Malagasy with French and English subtitles. DCP. When his hairdressing salon is destroyed by the municipality, Romeo must leave the high street of Toamasina for a harder-to-find shack in a residential neighborhood. Loyal customers keep him going, but he still dreams of building a permanent salon. Intimately, personally observed and yet somehow effortlessly reflective of issues confronting Madagascar at large,
Nofinofy is a marvel of formal economy as well as of patient, thoroughgoing empathy. Over time, Romeo, his family, neighbors, and customers reveal the challenges of living amid corruption, poverty, addiction, and political unrest, and Andrianaly’s film implicitly serves as an illuminating and energizing factor of resistance.
New York festival premiere. View trailer.
At the Museum: $15 / $11 seniors & students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / Free for MoMI members.
