Oli (Bigflo and Oli): "A program that we always watch as a family to meet in unknown lands."

Somewhere far, far away, imagine a strip of sand with a few green dots around it and a lot of blue. The blue of the ocean, the blue of the sky… This strip of sand is an islet in the southwest of Madagascar. Members of the Vezo, a nomadic people, live there for several weeks in a row. And this is where host Raphaël de Casabianca arranged to meet with Olivio Ordonez of the very popular Toulouse rap group Bigflo et Oli. The journey continued after fifteen hours of flying, then six hours of 4×4 driving on dirt roads, then in a wooden canoe fitted with outriggers and fitted with a blue sail.

” A program that we always watch as a family to meet in unknown lands.says Oli. Even though my mom is passionate about distant places and doesn’t leave often, she has sold trips all her life (she worked at an agency, editor’s note)! The joke between us was: “We’re going to do the show when we’re going to be really famous someday!” Much later, during an event, I met Raphael and went to introduce myself and said to him: “If there is a place on the show one day, I am your man!What Oli, prone to seasickness, did not foresee was that he would find himself in a canoe with thirty fishermen, among others, to plunge into a 400-metre-long net and attempt to catch fish to feed the Vezo families at sea. islet.

A walnut shell in the middle of the ocean

If a sequence shows a rapper reclining on a boat for a few minutes trying to limit the effects of seasickness, he will recover very quickly: There is such a sense of belonging when you get on the canoe surrounded by these fishermen who welcomed us, Célestin, Firmin and Natao! you can’t let go… And the fact of finding yourself in the open sea, on a walnut shell, without even a life jacket? ” I never thought it. Vezo are true marine experts and we totally trust them. And then, they don’t take reckless risks. Their lives are also in danger. »

A scene of joy and laughter in the movie especially moved Oli: “ I had a powerful moment when I met these three young women, Lyndia, Denise, and Natacha, who were shore fishing on the reef and collecting sea urchins to enrich meals. Given the weather conditions, it was impossible to go out to sea for two or three days. I was able to see how these people lived and how they harmoniously shared daily chores. Finally, we get emotional when Oli one evening tries to explain to the hosts what his job is. Under their bewildered and benevolent gaze, he raps at full speed to a text and then inspires them with this awe-inspiring comment: ” What you do is actually poetry! »

meeting in unknown land

Frederick Rapilly