Feguenson Hermogène

Nadia is a Haitian biologist living in Cuba, researching local wildlife. Until she receives a visit from deep waters, and the Cuban forest begins to speak in other languages. On that day, Haiti never seemed so far from Nadia.

In 1964, following the landing of around thirty men intent on overthrowing him, the Haitian dictator Duvalier launched a campaign of terror to deter peasants from joining the rebellion, composed of men from the Southeast region where they had settled. Over 50 years later, the peasants recount their story for the first time.

A short film about the director’s relationship with sewing, a craft he knew from a very young age thanks to his seamstress mother.

To break a spell, Maya invokes the spirit of Ayo: a former love who is turning into an egum, to help her create a Patuá, a Yoruba spiritual protection amulet. Together they invoke their ancestors, thus allowing Maya to continue with her life, while Ayo completes her journey to the world of the dead.

Ritual dances, incantations and fetishes in an associative sequence of mystical scenes reveal the roots of the Afro-Cuban minority in Bauta, Cuba, whose colonial past is guarded by a statue of a slave in chains. Tobacco smoke and magical ceremonies awaken the spirits of ancestors and invite them to fill the forgotten places of cultural memory of a young generation searching for their identity in a post-colonial era of political instability and religious syncretism.

In a remote corner of Santiago de Cuba, a family of Haitian origin celebrates the goddess Erzulie in prayer and dance. The family shares the pain resulting from the tragic history of Haitian migrants who work in the Cuban sugar industry.