Product Description
(Drama Foreign) Three middle-aged women on holiday converge at a Haitian resort to soak up the sun and sample the handsome young islanders' sexual talents in this well-crafted film. Disillusioned with and unsatisfied by the men at home, Wellesley professor Ellen and willowy divorcée Brenda find themselves competing for the virile Legba in this provocative paradise.
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Based on short stories by Haitian author Dany Laferrière, Heading South investigates sex tourism among white women who visit Haiti to rendezvous with young, Haitian boys during Baby Doc's dictatorship. Set in the late 1970's, the film features three women who are all in love with the same handsome native, Legba (Ménothy Cesar). Alternating between scenes of them collectively lounging around the resort and independently talking to the camera about their sex lives back home, Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), Brenda (Karen Young), and Sue (Louise Portal) typify women who revel in exoticism as the ultimate turn-on. Behind the fantasy, however, lies the reality of black Haitians, who comment on how they have traded literal slavery for the kind that comes attached to gifts and cash. Albert (Lys Ambroise), a waiter at the resort, Petite Anse, worries as he sees Legba sink deeper into trouble with local mob leaders as he carouses with women. French director Laurent Cantet has done an excellent job of presenting both sides of the equation, while exposing the violent corruption that has plagued Haitians for so long. Heading South's story of sexual cruelty is subtly treated to teach resort goers the ways in which tourist culture harms its environs. --Trinie Dalton