Adi Tulia Nacola is taking the Fijian filmmaking scene by storm, releasing two short films last year, and now her first feature Adi.
This new film is a stunning achievement. It is the first iTaukei language feature, the first Fijian feature by a female director, it boasts an entirely Fijian cast and crew, is a love letter to Ra, and will have its world premiere right here in Suva next month.
Adi is enhanced by the strong authorial voice and signature themes that mark Nacola’s growing body of multimedia work. She creates worlds that explore and celebrate Fijian identity and culture, mapping changes from the traditional to the contemporary through forces that can and do tear families and communities apart.
Her shorts Bubu Belo and The Feeding touch on these ideas in different ways: the former through the tender relationship between a grandmother and grandson; the latter between a mother and son. The locations, cast and genre may change, but both have dark secrets at their heart.
Adi is again about familial ties, and opens with three youngsters in Ra promising they will always be together. That all changes when the brother is sent abroad to school by his chiefly father, and the film then follows his attempts to reconnect with his sister, community and culture.
The longer feature format allows Nacola to move beyond colonial mechanisms of disruption and conflict, and explore what processes of indigenous resolution and restoration might look like.
It is incredible to think that many of the people working on the film were performing their roles for the first time, especially the actors (Salote Malani, Koro Navaulioni Ravai, Tarusila Sowakula, Michael Tabualovoni and Lusiana Vakatawa) who convey emotional multitudes with the slightest expressions.
The cinematography is also exceptional, led by local industry stalwarts Lanza Coffin and Brosnan Erbsleben, who wonderfully help bring Nacola’s vision to life.
Adi joins Andrew John Fakaua Ponton’s 2025 Bati to form a growing body of Fijian feature films with a character and tone that is unique and specific to these islands – one that has less in common with the hyperkinetic and colourful worlds of Hollywood and Bollywood that tend to dominate screens here in Fiji.
Adi is reminiscent of the work of Yasujirō Ozu with its quiet and deliberate examination of family and community dynamics and narrative ellipses, and a narrative ambiguity that has shades of Akira Kurosawa.
Whether this similarity to Japanese cinema is intentional or accidental, it is well-suited to explorations of island life in Fiji, generating its own pace and rhythms, and offering something refreshing and unique for audiences locally, regionally and globally.
Attending the screenings here in Fiji represents a chance to be part of something historical, as well as lending support to local artists and storytellers in their efforts to express and explore the complexity of Fijian culture and identity.
You can meet Tulia and members of the cast and crew at the exclusive world premiere at Damodar City Cinema with a VIP ticket for $25 or buy a standard ticket for just $10.
https://www.ticketmax.com.fj/GGHLX
NOTE: Adi screens again at Damodar City in Suva on March 5.
