Films sur le tourisme sexuel en Haiti: Heading South

"Heading South": Sex, struggles and oblivion in Haiti

Movie Review
By Tom Keogh

Special to The Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2003223404_heading25.html

Showtimes and trailer
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Sexual rapture and cultural exploitation merge into something quite horrifying, almost gothic, in "Heading South," an unsettling drama by the director of two other remarkable films about class
illusions, "Human Resources" and "Time Out."

French filmmaker Laurent Cantet sets his new work in late-1970s
Haiti, when the country was violently ruled by Jean-Claude "Baby
Doc" Duvalier. While ordinary Haitians are routinely harassed,
waylaid and murdered by Duvalier's privileged thugs, sexual tourism thrives for oblivious North American women at a tropical resort.

There, Brenda (Karen Young), a 48-year-old divorcée from Savannah, Ga., arrives in hope of reconnecting with one of the local gigolos, 18-year-old Legba (Ménothy Cesar). Three years earlier, the then-married Brenda experienced her first orgasm with Legba and has pined for him ever since.

"Heading South," with Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Ménothy
Cesar, Lys Ambroise. Directed by Laurent Cantet, from a screenplay by Cantet and Robin Campillo, based on stories by Dany Laferrière.

105 minutes. Not rated; much sexual content, strong language,
nudity, suggested violence. Partially in French, with English
subtitles.

But Legba is also the favorite of the resort's visiting doyenne,
Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), a 55-year-old, single professor at
Wellesley. Ellen is both delightful and venomous, clear-eyed but
confrontational. She has been sleeping with Legba for some time and instantly engages in a power struggle with Brenda over his attention.

A couple of other characters at the resort figure into the story,
though somewhat awkwardly, not really having an impact. One of them, Albert (Lys Ambroise), the resort's headwaiter, comes from a line of patriots who fought the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Addressing the camera in an ill-fitting monologue sequence (a misstep by Cantet), Albert makes clear that despite his polished deference to the hotel's white visitors, he is ashamed of his work.

Then again, every Haitian we meet in "Heading South," including
Legba, is making compromises to survive political realities on the
island. The life Legba leads away from the resort, in the streets,
is perilous, provoking both his fatalism and pride.

Brenda and Ellen, clutching at him out of need, know next to nothing of this. The tragedy is that it won't make any difference in their vacation plans.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company