Media review by Nicholas Hoare of Makatea: La terre convoitée by Claire Perdrix

People on Makatea are quick to point out that their island is unique. In French, the island has carried the handle ‘l'insolite’ (the unusual), in English it was once called ‘Freak Island’. In Tahitian it is known more matter-of-factly as the ‘white sling’, Ma‘atea, or the ‘white rock’, Papatea. Of course, claims of exceptionality always depend on one's point of view, and for those familiar with the other phosphate islands of the Pacific (principally Nauru, Banaba, and Ngaur), a question mark might lie over Makatea’s distinctiveness. However, in the context of the Tuamotu Archipelago, Makatea stands out as a lone high island in a sea of low-lying atolls. Something else that differentiates Makatea from other islands in the region is the level of media attention it has received since the arrival of an ambitious Australian-led, re-mining project called Avenir Makatea (or Makatea’s future) over a decade ago. Since then, the re-mining proposal has spawned multiple front-page stories, interviews, magazine features, official visits, and over 30 items on French Polynesia's leading news channel, Polynésie la 1ère. Claire Perdrix's award-winning documentary, Makatea, la terre convoitée (2019), needs to be viewed in the context of this now long-running re-mining debate.