Heading South, White Women Looking For Love In Haiti

Heading South

There was a movie shot in Haiti starring Charlotte Rampling (Babylon A.D., Basic Instinct 2) and Karen Young (The Sporanos, Law & Order).

The movie, shot in Haiti back in 2005, is called Ver Le Sud (Heading South / English title) and it is directed by French movie director Laurent Cantet, a graduate of France's most prestigious film school, IDHEC

The movie is about 3 North American women who head to Haiti, like Stella, to get their groove back. The twist of the movie is that two of these women end up having sights on a single man, Legba, Haitian Actor Menothy Cesar.

Who is Menothy Cesar?

I did some research on the movie and bumped into a rare interview given to FutureMovies.co.uk by French Director Laurent Cantet

Question: And the Haitian casting?

Laurent Cantet: It took three months to find Legba. I walked around Port-au-Prince looking at boys talking to them and asking if they wanted to screen test. Menothy didn't want to make a test, he just came to be with his cousin. The first time he came into the room, I knew it was him. He had no project with cinema. And he won an award in Venice, so he's now living in France.

Do you believe this? Menothy Cesar didn't even want to be an actor and, in his first acting role, with no acting experience, Menothy Cesar ended up wining the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Question: What was it like filming in Haiti?

Laurent Cantet: Not easy, we had to adapt to the conditions. The first day we had a shooting near the set. I had to find back up locations in the Dominican Republic in case we couldn't shoot in Port-au-Prince.

Ayisyen, sispan fe dezod, tampri souple, pou lot producer etranje ka vini fe plis film en Haiti, l-ap bon pou delopman peyi-a, ou pa janm konnen, yon jou menm pitit ou ka vinn akte tou, men jan ak Menothy Cesar, bel istwa, sa-w di?

You can read the full interview here.

Also starring in the movie is Haitian actor Guiteau Nestant (Choix Final)

Here is another interesting part of this whole story.

The movie Ver Le Sud is based on three short stories written by Haitian journalist and novelist Dany Laferriere. I don't know excatly which short stories but I do know that Dany Laferriere's first novel, published in 1985, was called "Comment faire l'amour avec un negre sans se fatiguer" (How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired).

I guess somebody went to Haiti to find out!

LOL!

It is interesting the kind of stories you find about Haiti when you do a little digging around!

Personally, I like this one!

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