There are some moments in Garanti 100% Kreol, from Laurent Pantaleon, that feel like a conventional documentary with sit down interviews. He searches for the titular ‘garanti’ from the ancestors. For that search, he sits down with people who discuss their own beliefs and own lucky gifts from the ancestors. These interviewees have ‘identity’ markers. The kind of things we in the West look for when we try to identify the people in front of us, race and religion as identities.

There are people who look South Asian and have statuettes of what looks like Hindu gods behind them. There are people who look African who get their blessings from everyone, Austronesian, white, all who say different things. They use templates of religion from their ancestors’ origin but the philosophy of learning from those religions feel similar. Garanti 100% Kreol shares the ethos of its interviewees and respects them, as one would expect from postcolonial film.

In Garanti 100% Kreol, Laurent Pantaléon uses Marker-esque techniques to depict his home territory of Reunion and its people. Sure, the switch from still photography to video and back and forth feels gimmicky, but it knows to reel itself back in with interviews. Those interviews remind the viewers that the people in front of the camera aren’t just faith healers. They’re also people cognizant of music and the environment, that if we take from the earth, we give it back.

Most of the stories in Garanti 100% Kreol are interesting. But others can make some people here in the West raise their eyebrows. One of the interviewees is someone who looks like his ancestors are European. This interviewee talks about how no one in Reunion asks about race. However, I’m taking everything at face value here because of the respectfulness and sincerity that I feel behind the camera.