|
Ghosts of Cite Soleil An extreme slice-of-life documentary dpa German Press Agency By Mary Sibierski, Warsaw Loving fathers and brutal killers, brothers 2Pac and Bily were ghetto gang leaders sporting machine guns reputedly supplied by none-other than the now-deposed president of Haiti, Jean- Bertrand Aristide. "How is my life gonna be? I don't know, I don't know... Maybe good, maybe bad ... Lord knows," the Haitian 2Pac tells the camera at point blank range. The look on his face says he knows it will be brief. This young man's final testament of life and death in the hell of a third world shanty town is immortalized in Ghosts of Cite Soleil - a raw, in-your-face documentary that is best described as extreme. An aspiring rapper, 2Pac is tall, wiry, intelligent and charismatic, at turns violent and generous. He is also young and doomed. Shot at point blank range by cinematographer Frederick Jacobi, Danish director Asger Leth and Serb co-director Milos Loncarevic, the film dives head-first into the untold human misery of one of the globe's poorest, most violent and disease-ridden urban ghettos. Cite Soleil - Sun City - is a slum skirting the northern edge of the Haitian capital of Port au Prince. Home to an estimated half million people, it is a place where children eat cakes made of dirt. There is no public infrastructure. No education, health care and only the most rudimentary of sanitation. Clean water is a treasure. Police make rare incursions into the area, where United Nations peacekeeping forces work as if in a war-zone. Deployed to end riots that erupted after the February 2004 coup d'etat against President Aristide, the UN forces have been accused by critics of being trigger-happy and killing innocent Cite Soleil civilians. Wielding a machine gun, 2Pac cruises carefree through the shanty town. The camera follows as Cite Soleil residents greet him like a local hero. They appear to regard him more as a benevolent provider and community leader than a fearsome, brutal thug. Ousted Haitian priest-to-president Aristide cultivated support among the destitute residents of Haiti's slums. He is also alleged to have recruited gang leaders like 2Pac and brother Bily as ghetto generals in his private political death squads. Dubbed the Chimeres - ghosts - they used bullets to quell dissent. It was a job they and other ghetto gang leaders could not refuse if they wanted to stay alive, says director Leth. He hosted the film's European screen debut this week at the Warsaw International Film Festival. "This is what I believe in," 2Pac tells the camera flexing his index finger as if to pull a trigger. The gesture screams "kill or be killed." Like the hundreds of thousands of Haitians doomed to life in slums like Cite Soleil, the film shows that at each and every turn, the brothers could only choose among the lesser of two evils. But an outburst of child-like joy while 2Pac is rapping his politically-charged lyrics over the phone to Haitian-born international hip-hop star Wyclef Jean, reveals that 2Pac believed in much more than the power of a gun. His secret hopes and dreams were wrapped-up in his music, which he believed could change his life. Born Winson Jean Bart, 2Pac bled to death after being shot by a rival gang in Cite Soleil after filming ended. He was 26. His brother Bily, born James Petit Frere, was buried not long after. He also died violently, aged 22. Both left behind now-orphaned toddlers, whom they were filmed doting upon like the most affectionate and attentive of fathers. 2Pac also left behind recordings of his hip-hop and rap anthems of radical political protest, director Leth reveals. Cinematographer Loncarevic captured 2Pac and Bily's compelling story on film thanks to an almost karmic friendship with the brothers, forged through his friend Eleonore Senlis. Nick-named Lele, the French humanitarian aid worker was one of few outsiders brave enough to venture alone into Cite Soleil. Thin and blonde with nerves of steel, she is the kind of powerful woman few men can resist. Bily had a school-boy crush on her. But a romance blossomed between her and 2Pac. Inspired by his contact with 2Pac, Wyclef Jean travelled to Haiti and joined the Nordisk Film project as an executive producer. He also wrote the film's haunting musical score and established Yele Haiti, a humanitarian aid organization aimed at jump-starting grass-roots development in his beleaguered homeland. His international musical success has made Jean a living legend of historic proportion in Haiti, according to Leth. "I don't know of any country on earth where music has a stronger impact than in Haiti," Leth says. A Caribbean-island paradise gone wrong, Haiti was declared the world's first independent black republic in 1804 after a rebellion by African slaves. Today, it has the dubious distinction of being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, plagued by violence, endemic corruption and political anarchy. Ghosts of Cite Soleil does not attempt to show or explain the root causes of the human tragedy it documents. But when asked, Leth is quick to blame the Haitian state and wealthy society. Rotten to the core with corruption, Leth insists Haiti is controlled by a handful of fabulously wealthy families that have failed to take any initiative to develop even the most basic public infrastructure like schools and hospitals to combat their nation's grinding poverty. "Even with the poverty, anarchy and hopelessness, the people still have a raw force of incredible pride and energy," Leth says. © 2006 dpa German Press Agency
|