If Ghosts Of Cite Soleil> weren’t a documentary you could scarcely believe what you’re seeing. Children run naked and wild through the benighted streets of Haiti. Thugs and gangs, armed by rival political factions, govern slums that make you yearn for the comparatively tranquil streets depicted in City Of God. The gun rules but only when rape, voodoo rituals and the machete won’t suffice.
Like many of their contemporaries in nearby Miami, which as the film points out, is a mere two hours by plane, hip-hop provides the only cultural bright spot for these tough young gentlemen. They rap, with considerable eloquence, about the political chaos and ultra-violence around them. Taking cues from their American idols, every utterance seems to end with “my g’ or ‘my niggaz’. When these fellows threaten to put a cap in your ass, however, you can be sure your remaining time on earth is short.
In the Port-au-Prince shanty Cité Soleil, identified by the UN as the “most dangerous place on earth”, the violent youths employed to do the bidding of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are called chimeres or ghosts. The name is tragically apt; those who aren’t dead soon will be.
Director Asger Leth certainly doesn’t have time to hang about. One passer-by prays for “sleep” to come to Haiti before admitting that he’s tempted to kill the filmmaker for his camera. Frankly, it’s impossible to represent the anarchy we see here with cool contemplation. The film is necessarily chaotic and complex, demanding the viewer to sit up and pay attention. Blink and you’ll miss an entire lifespan.
Though we do see footage of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell adding his two cents, Mr. Leth eschews politics for the personal. At the centre of Ghosts, we find Bily and his brother 2pac (also a rap artist), two rival warlords on the payroll of Mr. Aristide. Away from the frontlines, we find something like a love triangle forming between the brothers and Lele, the French aid worker who becomes 2Pac’s lover.
When Aristide flees the country, the entire crew is left to take the heat for his excesses. Once the gangs who deposed the president close in, primary characters start to ‘disappear’. Only Mr. Leth remains, with this extraordinary record of terrible, disposable lives.