Freda

Gessica Généus’s debut follows a strong-willed young woman struggling to decide whether to leave the violence of Haiti for the chance of a better life.

  • Director

    Gessica Généus

  • Producer

    Jean-Marie Gigon

  • With

    Néhémie Bastien, Jean Jean, Fabiola Rémy

  • Haiti 2021. 93min

  • Production company

    SaNoSi Productions

  • Language

    Creole Haitian, French

    With English subtitles

‘Should I stay or should I go?’ This is the question that Freda (Néhémie Bastien) asks herself. Despite forging a life for herself in volatile Port-Au-Prince as an anthropology student while supporting her family in her mother’s small convenience store, Freda’s boyfriend Yeshua (Jean Jean) is keen to take her away from the violence and to his ‘safer’ home in Santo Domingo. But leaving isn’t so simple for her. If she’s gone, who’ll look after her pious mother, impulsive sister and unmotivated brother? And is it better to stay and fight than it is to leave? Boldly directed by Gessica Généus, Freda is a fresh and authentic look at womanhood and familial relationships, and a powerful interrogation of the fraught legacy of colonialism in Haiti.

Grace Barber-Plentie

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