A short, 13-minute documentary that traces the “life” of a tomato harvested in Brazil to its fate in the hands of a child, Island of Flowers seems to offer an eerie critique on a consumerist society. The monotone and almost scientific narration throughout this film, paired with the quick flashing of images and captions that supplement every objective description maximizes the shocking effect of realization that the Island of Flowers is nothing like its name would suggest. The poor inhabitants of the Island of Flowers, “free” human beings with “highly developed telencephalons and opposable thumbs,” are placed behind pigs in the priority of choosing foods. Perhaps most interesting about the film is the irony of the name, “Island of Flowers.” The narrator describes “flowers” as brightly-colored and sweet-smelling parts of a plant, flashing images of some pretty floral patterns. We are thus led to believe that this Island of Flowers is in fact an island of brightly-colored and sweet-smelling plants, until we find out that it is in fact an island covered in disease-breeding garbage. Being a strictly objective film with no real emotional plot development, Island of Flowers raises an uncomfortable question of: who has the power? The film does a great job of narrating things as they are—like constantly reminding us the definition of human beings, and implicitly instilling in us that all humans are distinguished in a particular way. This, in fact, allows us to spot the striking differences in lifestyle of each human that is introduced in the film. Mrs. Anete, a commercial representative who sells perfume, has the privilege of not only being able to afford tomatoes and pork from a supermarket, but also the privilege of deciding which tomatoes that she has already purchased are fit or unfit for her pork sauce. The women and children that rummage through the organic waste on the Island of Flowers don’t have the privilege of choosing which tomatoes are suitable. They only have five minutes to pick up as much garbage (or is it considered food?) as they can, so it probably does not even cross their minds to be selective. Where Mrs. Anete decided that a spoiled tomato could be the cause of disease and thus belonged in the garbage, the women and children on the Island of Flowers could only hope to get their hands on the same tomato to nourish themselves.

It’s strange how someone’s garbage and disease-source is someone else’s sustenance—how does that make sense if we’re all the same species?