An Island Calling

Abstract

The 2001 murder of 'openly gay' couple John Scott and Greg Scrivener in Suva is still clouded in rumour and political mystery. Scott, a fourth-generation, Fiji-born European, was the repatriated prodigal son of a powerful colonial family. As the Director-General of the Fiji Red Cross he had gained international attention during the coup of 2000 when he went to the assistance of the hostages trapped in Parliament for 56 days. We meet friends, lawyers, and Fijian gay activists, seasoned Fiji observers and acquaintances of the murdered pair. We also meet the family of 22-year-old Apete Kaisau, who was ultimately charged with the killings. By engaging with a wide array of local viewpoints, every one of them expressed in vivid, forthright terms, Annie Goldson's bracingly level-headed film fixes their horrific deaths within Fiji's volatile heritage of colonial privilege, evangelical Christianity, immigrant work force and indigenous entitlement.