“Here comes history, so listen carefully,” says the song at the beginning of this film about Mahaleo, the Malagasy band whose lyrical insights are intertwined with their country's political and cultural struggles. Formed in 1972 during Madagascar's struggle for independence, Mahaleo has expressed its people's pride and hopes for over thirty years through its fusion of Western-influenced pop ballads and lilting Malagasy vocal harmonies and traditional instruments. The group's cultural value is more than musical, however; Mahaleo members work full-time as doctors, a sociologist, an elected official, and a leader of an NGO. Mahaleo follows these national heroes onstage (during a lively thirtieth-anniversary concert) and off, where they treat patients, fight for farmers' rights, and battle political corruption. Set to the group's gorgeous music and the staggering natural beauty of Madagascar, it's an uplifting portrait of musicians who not only sing about “fighting the power” and changing the world, but actually do these things.

Mahaleo is repeated on Sunday, July 9.