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The Ghosts of Cité Soleil

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by Kerry McLeod
If ever you chance upon an argument about the definition of documentary, and you fancy playing devil’s advocate, you might like to throw in the example of The Ghosts of Cité Soleil. This film sits quite comfortably among a summer of blockbusters: it has guns, violence, a tragic love story and a fantastic soundtrack (by Wyclef Jean) available at all good record shops. Only it’s a doc.

Set in the slums of Haiti’s capital Port au Prince, the film is an intimate tale of two brothers, gang leaders and rivals, told on an epic scale during the lead up to, and aftermath of, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s departure in 2004. The plot and themes are that of a Shakespearean tragedy and at times it’s hard to believe that we are really watching events as they unfold.

Director Asger Leth is open about his intentions to make a documentary with a feature film feel. Son of filmmaking legend Jørgen Leth, he says: “My father is a documentary filmmaker… and I respect that, but his films are not documentaries in the sense of going out there and finding issues in the world, where you’re making a living being almost a film activist. His films are extremely personal and subjective, and he taught me all throughout my life that documentaries could be so much more than these journalistic pieces.”

So he wrote a feature film-style treatment, he graded the rushes before his editor even started cutting, and he makes full use of Dolby Digital. The result is an intimate and at times uncomfortably tense film, where the interviews feel more like a dramatic monologue and the gunfights leave you shaken in your seat. The knowledge that this is actuality footage, events unfolding before the camera, only makes it all the more disquieting.

There are dangers that getting so involved with these two protagonists makes it easier to forget the wider context in which they exist and act, like watching The Krays and forgetting what they actually did. Such criticisms have been levelled at Leth, who deflects them deftly: “The point is, when you keep looking at these gangs with that moral already on your sleeve, and not wanting to face up to the fact that they’re human beings also, then you have a problem. Like in Haiti right now, everybody wants to kill them and that’s the usual approach. It’s like 2pac [one of the brothers] says, ‘killing, killing, killing, when is it ever going to stop?’ And he’s right. Because these guys, they’re not the disease, they’re a symptom of the disease and you can try and cure that symptom but you’re not curing that disease.”

Ghosts is unlike any other documentary I’ve ever seen; it’s not perfect of course, and its twisted, messed up contributors are not quite pushed or questioned enough to really extend our understanding of the situation – especially relief worker Lele who seems to be playing out her fantasies by playing with fire and seems to avoid the consequences doled out to the others – but it certainly explodes the genre right open.
Read highlights from our interview with Asger Leth here on DFGdocs/Articles
Read the full piece in the next issue of movieScope magazine. For details of how to subscribe, click here: www.moviescopemag.com. And remember, DFG Members get a 40% discount on subscriptions! Login to the DFG Community to find out how.

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