The film centers around Marie-Thérèse, who leaves Haiti to go live in New York with her family when Jean-Bertrand Aristide is thrown out of power. Years later, Paul, a fellow Haitian shows up in New York and falls in love with Marie-Thérèse. Paul wants to live in New York but Marie wants to go back to Haiti, they eventually agree on having the wedding in Haiti. When they go back to Haiti to get married, the date and time of the wedding coincide with the 2011 earthquake that shook the nation. The earthquake causes a lot more than physical damage as it separates the lovers without either one of them knowing if the other is alive. A year later, they meet again, rekindling their love and their wish to be married. The plot takes an interesting twist and leaves audiences baffled and at times very much confused at the way things turn out.
The director of this film, Mr. Robert Yao Ramesar is one of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading filmmakers. This is the first film of his that I've ever seen; I have always heard high praises about him so I was really looking forward to seeing his work.
A lot takes place in the film through innuendo and suggestion. At times I thought the film became a bit too confusing to keep up with, I got lost a couple of times and there were parts where everything seemed to be all over the place. It was obvious from the start, that the film was shot with a very low budget. Overall the film was not what I expected, I have to admit that I expected more from Yao Ramesar after everything that I've heard about him and the type of films that he’s known for producing. Although I must commend his creativity, his use of symbolism throughout the film was beautiful done.
After the showing of the film, Yao Ramesar was available for a question and answer session. He commented that if the audience found themselves confused after the film, that was the way he intended it. He also shone light on the fact that a lot of funding for the film had to be done out of his own finances, so sometimes, some of the shots were taken using cell phones. He explained that shooting in Haiti proved to be very difficult, as a lot of things he had to do alone. It is known though, that Yao shoots his narrative feature films with a very small crew, sometimes as small as two persons, for financial reasons I suppose. Overall the film took a lot from him and was very rough on his body physically. In the end he tried his best to be as honest as he could to the people of Haiti, to the devastation and destruction that they faced and to depicting it all on film; the film was inspired by the everyday lives of people living in Haiti.
The film while disappointing at some points, has a lot of promise and when you really take the time to look at the kind of effort that Mr.Yao put into making this film, it’s truly remarkable how dedicated he is, something I can't help but admire.
So while I did not like the film as much as I thought I would have, I definitely respect and appreciate what Yao represents and what he’s trying to do. For that very reason I would recommend the film to anyone and ask that you not judge the film without understanding Yao’s journey and what he was really trying to do.
Trailer for the film :
No comments:
Post a Comment