Les soleils de l'Ile de Pâques (1972)

Maurice is a French physicist specializing in solar energy, as well as an expert in geomancy and a descendant of a long line of sorcerers and magicians; Norma is an astronomer in Brazil; Alexandra is the daughter of a wealthy Chilean family and has mediumistic sensitivity; Françoise is a French ethnologist returning from a research expedition in Polynesia; Helvio is a professor of entomology at the University of Valparaiso; and Irenio is a macumba priest in Brazil. These six people, who do not know one another, experience waves of hallucinations at the same time, invariably ending with images of Easter Island, and discover the appearance of a small pearly disc in the palm of each of their hands. Each then decides to set out for this island at the end of the world, by their own means. Alexandra is accompanied by her boyfriend, Alain, a psychologist in Valparaiso. Despite feeling that he is the “seventh side of a hexagon,” Alain agrees to go with her, because Alexandra senses that he is a kind of “catalyst” and that his role will become clear later. During the journey, they meet one another in pairs, then in groups of three, and converge on the island. After exploring it, they all gather in a cave before a man who has been waiting for them, the “Guardian.” He explains that every five hundred years, for millennia, an astral and sidereal conjunction occurs, allowing beings from an “utterly distant elsewhere” to attempt contact with people on Earth. These extraterrestrial beings are intelligences made of pure energy, taking the form of spheres, like “suns.” The statues on Easter Island are, in a sense, beacons in space and time for these beings. The waves of hallucinations received by the six protagonists therefore turn out to be telepathic messages guiding them to this cosmic rendezvous. At the appointed time, the “suns” materialize and probe the minds of the six Earthlings. Horrified by the images of violence they see there—war, famine, and so on—the “suns” flee, once again refusing to make official contact with humanity. As the six main protagonists return to their lives, Alain is chosen to become the new “Guardian,” the one who will wait in the cave for the next great rendezvous with the “suns,” five centuries later.