VERS
LE SUD
HEADING SOUTH |
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Director: Laurent Cantet
Screenplay: Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet
Cast:
Ellen : Charlotte Rampling
Brenda : Karen Young
Sue: Louise Portal
Legba: Ménothy Cesar
Awards:
Marcello Mastroianni Award (Ménothy Cesar) &
Cinema for Peace Award, Venice Film Festival (2005)
Running time: 107’
Production: France, Canada 2005
Rating: Non Rated
Gauge: 35mm, DVD (color)
Genre: Drama
Distributor: New Yorker Films
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"Heading
South is much more than a dispassionate examination
of middle-age desire. Set in the late 1970's, when Haiti
was ruled by Jean-Claude Duvalier and a cadre of thugs,
this politically pointed film contemplates the darker
social undercurrents beneath a seemingly benign example
of sexual tourism(...) With a screenplay in French, English
and a smattering of Creole by Mr. Cantet and Robin Campillo,
Heading South is a beautifully written, seamlessly
directed film with award-worthy performances by Ms. Rampling
and Ms. Young."
Stephen Holden, The New York Times |
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In the late
1970's, Ellen, a 55-year-old college teacher of French literature,
takes her annual vacation at an out-of-the-way Haitian resort.
She is the queen bee among unattached middle-aged women from
Europe and North America who come to Haiti to have sex with
poor black boys whom they pay with both expensive gifts and
money. Without judging the characters, the film, adapted from
three stories by Dany Laferrière, explores the intersections
of cultural imperialism, sexual tourism and women's liberation
in a repressive dictatorship. Much as the proud Haitian hotel
workers loathe the rich visitors who exploit them, they desperately
welcome their needed dollars. These relationships may be commercial,
but they are also tender. Weighing the value of erotic pleasure
and the emotional risks involved in its pursuit, the women
address questions of sex, love, aging, loneliness and desire
in blunt personal monologues. The film is a powerful reminder
that individual behavior and attitudes are closely intertwined
with global political issues.
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| PHOTO New Yorker
Films |
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