While his daughter brings him Haitian food, a terminally ill man reveals to him what he suffered under the Duvalier regime.
Montreal, winter 2011. While Jean-Claude Duvalier is back in Haiti after 25 years of exile, Reynold (Gilbert Laumord, of natural authority), who fled the dictatorship, is bedridden by cancer of the ‘stomach. Knowing his days are numbered, he wants to see his daughter Vanessa (Marie-Évelyne Lessard, excellent) again with whom he has been at odds for 20 years. Despite the violence her father inflicted on her family, Vanessa agrees to go to his bedside.
With the help of her aunt Dado (Mireille Metellus, sunny), Vanessa cooks her father’s favorite dishes. Over the meals his daughter brings him, Reynold tells her about his youth in Port-au-Prince. Promised for a bright future, young Reynold (Fabrice Yvanoff Sénate, moving) was, like several of his compatriots, imprisoned for an arbitrary reason by the Tontons Macoutes at Fort Dimanche.
Grand Prize at the Quebec City Cinema Festival (FCVQ), first feature-length fiction film by Maryse Legagneur (In the name of mother and son), The last meal is based solidly on a screenplay written with Luis Molinié (the short film Mamita), which is inspired by interviews conducted by the director with survivors of Fort Dimanche. From the outset, the rigor and concern for authenticity specific to the winner of the last edition of The world destination race are essential in this film where humanity, dignity and beauty oppose the worst atrocities.
By turns a painful duty of memory, a sensual love letter to the pearl of the Antilles, a heartbreaking family drama about reconciliation and a persevering quest for truth, The last meal is available in two eras according to a somewhat rigid mechanics to which the editing of Myriam Magassouba and the music of Jenny Salgado bring a gentle fluidity.
In photography, Mathieu Laverdière composes striking contrasts between the bright colors of the Port-au-Prince market, where Reynold bites into a mango, and the murky light that invades the prison, as well as between the clinical whiteness of Reynold’s bedroom and the comforting light that envelopes Dado’s kitchen. Furthermore, the steaming dishes that parade on the screen, including joumou soup, symbol of the independence of the Haitian people, make your mouth water.
While Henri Pardo, who recounted at a child’s level the traumas resulting from the Duvalier regime in Kanavalsuggested more than it showed the violence suffered by the Haitians, Maryse Legagneur preferred to illustrate the cruelty and brutality in a frontal manner. Like her colleague, the filmmaker has, however, injected a hint of poetry into her invitation to break the silence on the wounds of the past.
In the room
Drama
The last meal
Maryse Legagneur
Marie-Évelyne Lessard, Gilbert Laumord, Fabrice Yvanoff Senate, Mireille Metellus
1:51 a.m.