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Clarence Tsui

Ghosts of Cite Soleil
Featuring: Winson '2pac' Jean, James 'Bily'  Petit-Frere, Eleonore 'Lele' Senlis
Director: Asgen Leth
The film: It's hardly surprising that Asgen Leth's Ghosts of Cite Soleil was primarily marketed  through its soundtrack (written by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis, whose names are more prominent on the DVD cover than the director's).
This documentary about  two gun-toting, self-proclaimed 'thugsters' who preside over Cite Soleil - a slum on the outskirts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince -  provides viewers a quick adrenaline rush of reality TV.
Leth and his crew  deserve credit for bravely filming in one of the most impoverished and perilous countries in the world - and  for focusing on tales of suffering and fear the international community has long since forgotten.
However, that's  where  this reviewer's admiration ends and the admonishment begins.
While Ghosts certainly provides a useful  primer about the social mayhem that exists in Haiti today, the Danish director's full-length debut  doesn't go beyond the gangstas-in-the-hood visuals and fails to  help viewers understand why  the murderous acts  take place.
For example, one is nearly convinced the squalor and bloodletting in Cite Soleil is  the fault of 'chiefs' such as 2pac and Bily,  the brothers at the centre of the film, whose philosophy  on life  centres on how heroes 'never live long [and] you always die young', and that internecine warfare is a normal everyday part of life in Haiti.
A romantic subplot between the brothers and French relief worker Lele looks  distinctly suspect.
Leth is  also guilty  of simplistically implying that the 'chiefs'  are the sole  reason  law and order has broken down in Haiti  as the documentary unfolds during the death throes of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's  government in 2004, and  further fails to question the politics that brought about the chaos in the first place, with Aristide  seen as  a tyrant propped up by armed thugs while the rebels  are painted as saviours of the country.
In fact, the anti-Aristide leaders Leth  interviews are businessmen and past leaders of the Tonton Macoutes,  the death squads operated by the Duvalier family who ruled Haiti for decades before finally being overthrown in 1986. These are all people  united in their  dislike of Aristide's left-wing policies, and their  desire to crush the Chimeres  (the 'Ghosts', the name given to armed groups led by  the brothers and their fellow chiefs).
It's also important to point out what Cite Soleil does not say -  that invisible helping hands from Washington, Ottawa and Paris are  trying to bring  the island's elites back to power.
The extras: Given the film's lack of political context,  it's  hardly  surprising  there are no illuminating featurettes  -  though the story  merits many. The only extra here is a trailer.
The verdict: While the film works as a documentary about Haitian society, take some of  its content with large pinches of salt.



Ghosts of Cite Soleil