Venerable storytellers recount for the camera and their listeners the founding myths of Malagasy culture.

In the wings of the opera "Maraina", the film combines history and oral memory, to recount in music the first contacts between the natives in the Indian Ocean Islands and the Europians. The film follows the cast's fantastic journey to the place where it all began: Fort-Dauphin, in southern Madagascar.
Two differents versions of a moment in African history: one related by the French officers back in the mid-17th century, and the other one by the Malagasy people. The characters tell their own vision of a common past. There was war of course but there were also love stories between those young French soldiers and beautiful Malagasy princesses. A fascinating voyage through Madagascar today, at the heart of its beliefs.

在马达加斯加语里‘mahaleo’意味着自由、独立和自治。一个七人乐队一直拒绝商业演出（尽管他们三十年来在这方面非常成功）但他们依然选择为自己国家的发展出一份力。这些马达加斯加的蓝调顶尖歌手也是医师、外科医生、农民、社会学家和议员……这些崇尚自由的歌曲曾是1972叛乱的导火索，导致了马达加斯加新殖民政权的垮台。如今，他们继续影响着马达加斯加人的生活，正是这些歌曲的情感和力量指引着马达加斯加人的生活，同时该片也反映了当今马达加斯加人生活。