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Heading South [vers La Sud] [dvd/ws/eng-both]

Format: DVD
3.5 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
IMDb6.3/10.0
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Language English, French
UPC 796019798174
Global Trade Identification Number 00796019798174
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Product Description

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

Product details

  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.93 ounces
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ DVD
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000ION76M
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

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  • MICHAEL ACUNA
    4.0 out of 5 stars Jungle Fever
    Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2008
    Set in Haiti during the reign of Baby Doc Duvalier, Laurent Cantet's (the unusual, quietly persuasive "Time Out")"Heading South" ("Vers le Sud") is an erotic fairy-tale in many ways: the "noble," pliant natives in the person of Legba (the excellent Menothy Cesar), rich bored white women looking for a summer vacation of good times, hot beaches, cool drinks and hot sex.
    The story features three such women: the mercurial, experienced at the hows and whys of Haiti and its beach boys Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), the basically depressed and debauched Brenda (Karen Young) and the wise, knows the scoop, been there, done that and wants to do it again French Canadian, Sue (Louise Portal). All three have been to Haiti previously and all, for better or worse, are back as this film begins.
    Without a doubt the center of Ellen and Brenda's attention is the charismatic Legba: coal black, wide smile, welcoming, willing and emotionally and physically available at all times for both of them...a neat trick as its hard enough to keep one woman happy, but two? But human beings being human beings things go awry pretty quickly.
    On the surface it would seem that Legba is being manipulated and used but on closer inspection it is Legba who holds all the cards and he deals them as he sees fit. Legba is in charge and it is Ellen and Brenda who willingly do his bidding. And Menothy Cesar's Legba is more that up to all this attention and scrutiny: his Legba is wise, intelligent, thoughtful, loving, family oriented...not just a piece of meat, in other words, not available to the highest bidder.
    The young, virile Haitians are the prizes in Cantet's heady, jasmine scented, tropical world and they use their youthful potency and attractiveness as the currency that will translate into a one-way ticket to a life out of their everyday poverty and squalor.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Bruno
    1.0 out of 5 stars Exploitation turned into chick flick
    Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2007
    A film about bourgoise aging Europeans using their wealth and power to have sex with semi-literate, uneducated poverty stricken third world locals? Surely a lengthy diatrabe against the sex tourism industry and a call to arms for the strengthing of the law against such evil predators? No, this film glosses over any issues of exploitation and abuse and tries in fact to be more of a romantic chick flick. Then surely this film must have caused howls of outrage upon release, pickets outside of cinemas etc? No, calm down everybody, this is the story of 3 aging white women who go to Haiti to take advantage of the bodies of poverty stricken, uneducated third world black men, and hence its perfectly fine, in fact a touching portrayal of the angst ridden lonely white middle-aged Europen female, who are tragically discovering that all the best black bodies in Europe are having sex with the younger, fitter white girls.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • B. Merritt
    3.0 out of 5 stars The Darker Side Of Female Sexuality And The Aging Woman
    Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2007
    Taking us places we've never been before is one of the excellent ways cinema tells artistic stories. HEADING SOUTH deserves much credit for this aspect.

    Rarely (if ever) do we see the darker side of female sexuality, and this is explored in minute detail in the film. But the message doesn't stop there. We also see the up- and ultimate downside of Western culture on a society struggling with its own identity; in this case, Haiti.

    Haiti is the poorest nation in this hemisphere, not to mention riddled with an AIDS epidemic and a militaristic government. This comes into stark contrast as we watch Brenda (Karen Young) exit a plane in Port au Prince and walk between the desperate homeless and the gun-toting military. She is quickly whisked away from this ugliness and into an idyllic beach resort by its owner, Frank (Guiteau Nestant). Here she meets up with two other "civilized" women vacationers, Ellen (Charlotte Rampling) and Sue (Louise Portal, who has only the slightest role in the flick). They strike up an interesting if antagonistic relationship, especially whenever they're around the lithe and beautiful Legba (Menothy Cesar), a male prostitute of sorts who "services" the ladies of the resort. Yet much more is going on (and has gone on).

    Brenda (a white woman from the States) first met Legba years before and experienced her first orgasm with him ...when she was 45; and he was only fifteen. Because we're in Haiti, though, pedofilia doesn't apply. The laws tend to be lax in that aspect. Brenda explains her first sexual encounter with Legba in brutally interesting terms (using words such as "threw myself" and "animal"). We also witness Ellen's attraction to Legba, which also goes deep (no pun intended). Brenda is 55 years old and knows she's on the downside of her sexual identity with men her own age, so seeks out a distant yet physically fulfilling relationship with Legba, too. Trouble is, though, is that both Ellen and Brenda find themselves more than just physically attracted to Legba. Brenda has no qualms about her feelings, and all but plants herself in his lap whenever she can. But Ellen tries to be more aloof, feigning disinterest in anything beyond physical desire (aka lying to herself). Brenda can see that Ellen wants Legba just as badly as she, and so bitter sparks fly amongst them.

    But in the midst of these two battling and somewhat selfish women is Legba himself. Born into poverty, he finds himself trapped between the old Haiti and the possibility of a new life with one of the women from the resort (note: Legba is black, in case you didn't realize that). But relationship ties with his mother and an old flame flicker in his mind, holding him back, and threatening his very existence at important crossroads in the story. He's also more outspoken than most of his other male counterparts at the resort, and tells the women exactly what he thinks ("You look old like that"). This endears him even more to the summer visitors.

    Life in Haiti is often vicious and fleeting, and this is brought home to the viewer when we watch Legba being chased through Port au Prince by a gun-wielding madman after someone sees him escorting a white woman around the city (Brenda). Nothing good can come from a relationship with these infrequent guests unless he can get off the island. But can he? Is he willing to let go of his homeland and his family in order to just survive in a distant world?

    Director Laurent Cantet gives us a very good character study while enveloping it in the political strife surrounding Haiti. But the film's pacing is exceptionally slow and male viewers may very well be turned off by the subject matter. Although female pedofilia does exist, it isn't nearly as rampant as the male version. And men may have a better sense of the separation between sex and love (this is a broad distinction, though, and may only hold true in a Mars Versus Venus sense).

    Still, the story is interesting enough thanks to some great acting on the part of old-time sex symbol Charlotte Rampling (FAREWLL, MY LOVELY, 1975), and the first-time role of Menothy Cesar as the unforgettable Legba.
    30 people found this helpful
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  • J. Pearl
    5.0 out of 5 stars From a time since passed
    Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    This French and Canadian co-production is set in the 1970s and tells the tale of white women from Canada and America who ventured to a resort hotel in Haiti to soak up the sun and the attention of young male islanders. This subject is tastefully handled and the vacationing ladies, the gigolos, and other key characters are all portrayed as complex individuals rather than stereotypes. The dialogue is in both French and English, but this subtle masterpiece could have been shot without sound and still work as cinema, so riveting are the dramatic scenes and the Haitian scenery, the latter both beautiful and squalid.
    4 people found this helpful
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