Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006)

79% of critics liked it
(53 reviews)
70% of users liked it
(13,969 ratings)

During the embattled final months of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's second term as president of Haiti, Aristide's allies recruited street gangs from the nation's poorest cities to act as strong-arm men, helping to shut down resistance to Aristide and quiet those who opposed him. Called chimères (or… More During the embattled final months of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's second term as president of Haiti, Aristide's allies recruited street gangs from the nation's poorest cities to act as strong-arm men, helping to shut down resistance to Aristide and quiet those who opposed him. Called chimères (or "ghosts"), these gang-bangers became a powerful part of Aristide's forces until the president was removed from office by a coup d'etat in 2004. Dutch filmmaker Asger Leth combines mockumentary reenactments with footage shot in the ghettos of Cité Soleil during Aristide's final days in this powerful drama that follows two brothers and chimères, Billy (James Petit Frere) and 2Pac (Winson Jean). Billy dreams of someday leaving behind the gang life and becoming part of Aristide's political machine, while 2Pac has become disillusioned with politics and wants to become a rap star in the manner of his hero and namesake, Tupac Shakur. In a place where political allegiances shift every day and brutal violence is commonplace, Billy and 2Pac's relationship is already a tense one, but matters become even more difficult between them when they both fall in love with the same woman -- Lele (Eleonore Senlis), a French social worker who understands the power these men hold better than they do themselves. Ghosts of Cité Soleil features a musical score by Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, who also appears in the film in a scene in which he discusses music and politics with 2Pac. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 28 min.
Directed By: Asger Leth, Milos Loncarevic
Genres: Documentary

In Theaters: Sep 1, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Nov 20, 2007
Studio: ThinkFilm

Critic Reviews

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
An expressionistic portrait of a society in violent chaos, the film blends cinÃ (C)ma vÃ (C)ritÃ (C) and newsreel footage to capture a modern-day tragedy with Shakespearean overtones.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
[An] indelible documentary, which dives into the brutal heart of a place most people would avoid at all cost.
Rafer Guzman, Newsday
The director, Asger Leth, isn't terribly organized, but he puts us smack in the middle of everything: petty squabbles, horrible riots, casual shootings, even a love triangle.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
A moving and profoundly upsetting portrait of life near the bottom of the global power pyramid.
A.O. Scott, New York Times
Asger Leth's Ghosts of Cité Soleil offers a tour of a notorious, hellish slum in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
J. Hoberman, Village Voice
That the most powerful aspect of this story is described rather than shown is one of Ghosts' many mysteries. Another is Leth's remarkable access to his subjects.
Marty Mapes, Movie Habit
Packs an emotional punch, but that only partly makes up for the lack of a good story
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
Besides anti-Aristide diatribes mouthed a little too much on cue by these hooligans, there's also a French female relief worker mostly providing sexual relief to a gabby gangster. Not to mention 'relief worker' often as Third World code word for CIA spy.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
Besides anti-Aristide diatribes mouthed a little too much on cue by these hooligans, there's also a French female relief worker mostly providing sexual relief to a gabby gangster. Not to mention 'relief worker' often as Third World code word for CIA spy.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Ghosts of Cite Soleil is a curiously unfocused, rambling film that never really settles on exactly what it wants to say or exactly which stories it wants to tell.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
Leth ... gets us so close to life in Cité Soleil that we practically can hear the bullets and smell the garbage.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
There's an immediacy to Ghosts of the Cite Soleil that's exceedingly rare for a documentary of any stripe.
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Ghosts of Cite Soleil is too brief and limited in scope to provide a complete picture of Haiti's turbulent history, but its images of how so many of its citizens live and die on a daily basis -- is both heartbreaking and unforgettable.
Ted Fry, Seattle Times
More horrific than any tale from the crypt Hollywood could conceive.
Bill White, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Dutch director Leth is so enamored of the ugliness of it all that he doesn't even try to penetrate the noisy bravado that obscures the patches of truth that lie beneath the surface.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
The ultra-violence of this microcosm [gang] society is what Ghosts is all about.
Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
This flashy looking documentary scored by Haitian singer Wyclef Jean is such a frightening inside look at a poverty stricken society ruled by violence that it is a marvel that it got made.
Steve Watson, Little White Lies
Goes beyond front-line journalism to show the men behind the guns.
Stuart McGurk, thelondonpaper
Intimate and terrifying, at points almost expressionistic and surreal, this is never less than a nerve-shredding experience. It even includes an (improbable) love story.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
Leth shows us the horrendous nature of the period but fails to provide much necessary political analysis, without which it is even more deeply depressing than it might have been.

Read all 23 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Gordon A

Extraordinary access to the documentary subjects allows a frightening world to come to life.
danny d

haunting, stunning, and as real as it gets. i had a spiritual expirience watching this film that cannot be described with words, one of the most impactful films i have ever seen. this is the sort of film that reminds people that the world is a horrible place for many who live in it.… More
haunting, stunning, and as real as it gets. i had a spiritual expirience watching this film that cannot be described with words, one of the most impactful films i have ever seen. this is the sort of film that reminds people that the world is a horrible place for many who live in it. a film about fear, suffering, anxiety, and death, this is 85 of the most impactful minutes a person can expirience watching a movie. this film left me heartbroken.