Bitter Paradise (2012)

Guillaume and Isabelle, both teachers, ask for a transfer to Reunion Island or Guadeloupe. When they receive confirmation of their departure for Mayotte, they're over the moon. Neither Hugo nor his kid sister has a clue where Mayotte is, and Hugo has no wish to find out - But despite sulking, he soon finds himself on the scorching-hot tarmac of Pamandzi Airport. Mayotte is nothing like the vacation-brochure dream of the tropics. The only white kid on the island, and suddenly well-off compared to the relative poverty of the islanders, Hugo doesn't feel at home and rejects everything. Relations between Hugo and his folks grow tense. Then again, relations between his folks also deteriorate when Isabelle, the mom, starts getting homesick - But when Hugo catches classmate Zaïnaba's eye, everything begins to change. She's two years older than he, beautiful and spontaneous. Zaïnaba first shows him Mayotte, and then love. But when after a few months she announces that she's pregnant by him, his world collapses a second time. He's urgently repatriated to France. Totally distraught, his life loses all direction. He meets Charlotte, alias Charly, a girl the same age and a militant anti-advertising activist. It's too much for his grandparents who are looking after him, and too much for his parents, too, who are back in France for the school vacation.