Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006)

A quick hit on a documentary watched this past week: Ghosts Of Cité Soleil (The Ghosts of Sun City, or Fantasmas de Cité Soleil). The gist is this: During Jean-Bertrand Aristide's second try as Haiti's President (the more controversial of the two terms), and a resistance group headed by the former Haitian president's brother begins a city by city march to depose him and his Lavala Party. The story revolves around two Lavala brothers, "Bily" and "2Pac". 

As you might have guessed, 'Pac' co-opted his moniker from Tupac Shakur and is a self-described hip-hop superstar in the making — or he would have us believe as much. The two are militant leaders in two of the nineteen Soleils in Port-au-Prince and the top men in the Aristide armed & funded Chimére (Ghost) Army; an allegiance they appear to hold solely for its power. "Bily" is less flagrant than his brother, he wants to become President of Haiti, but "2Pac" is a bombastic thug who lords over his Soleil with a combination of charm and horrible fear. In one instant, 2Pac seeks a generator during one of the many power outages (to throw a party no less), but when a man waffles to hand his over, 'Pac' puts bladder-evacuating fear into the man — this is but one of his antics. What transpires in Asger Leth's doc is the brothers' efforts to maintain their power first and foremost, yet their portrayed as wanting to escape the squalid life in the Soleils. '2Pac' developes a contact in Fugees alumn Wyclef Jean to produce his music, and in turn, opening the window of escape that has eluded him — what's clear though is '2Pac' really has no desire to abandon a situation he relishes. This dichotomy is his alone. 'Bily', on the contrary, maintains his provincial, if not illusionary, political aspirations.

As a whole, and to Leth's credit, he holds back the urge to wonder into soap opera territory. I can image the self-control employed in the face of a coup, a weird love triangle, Wyclef Jean's inclusion in the events, and all of the in-fighting among the different Soleil leaders. How he staved off becoming repetitive or melodramatic is no small wonder.

I'll give Ghosts Of Cité Soleil 5 Powermad Haitians out of 10.