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07/20/07
Ghosts of Cite Soleil (2007)
81 %
Reviews Counted: 48 Fresh: 39 Rotten:9 Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus:
Asger Leth risked his life to bring audiences this rare and gritty glimpse at Haitian gangs, poverty and politics.
Rated: 15
Runtime: 88 mins
Theatrical Release: 20-07-2007
Synopsis: An epic portrait of a family and a culture torn apart by poverty and violence, GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL is a powerful and unsettling documentary that takes us inside the lives of the notorious gang leaders who dominate the Haitian slum of Cite Soleil, one of the most desperate communities in the... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Reviews
Intimate and terrifying, at points almost expressionistic and surreal, this is never less than a nerve-shredding experience. It even includes an (improbable) love story.
07/20/07
Leth shows us the horrendous nature of the period but fails to provide much necessary political analysis, without which it is even more deeply depressing than it might have been.
07/20/07
A garbled account of state-aided terror that sheds little light on these dogs of war.
07/20/07
While Leth’s guerrilla-style documentary is gripping to watch, it isn’t particularly well-structured and constantly loses focus
07/20/07
With a film this frenzied and passionate, it is difficult to tell just what’s going on for a sizeable chunk of the running time.
07/20/07
Captured at hair-raisingly close quarters by the fearless filmmakers, the sense of lawlessness grabs the throat and haunts the mind.
07/20/07
Top Critic
This is as appalling, and viscerally compelling, a documentary as will be released all year.
07/20/07
Top Critic
This deeply questionable movie presents itself as a documentary. Actually it is hardly more than an exploitative gangsta rap video about the worst slums of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. Leth's movie is politically and morally illiterate.
07/20/07
Top Critic
The tone of the movie is excessively in thrall to its admittedly charismatic subjects.
07/20/07
Top Critic
Gripping, powerful documentary with a terrific soundtrack and a compelling narrative that resonates on both a personal and political level.
07/20/07
Leth’s gritty, haphazardly edited film plays like a music video, with jagged rap sequences interlaced with urgent handheld Super 8-style footage and a stonking shanty-blues soundtrack.
07/20/07
Top Critic
Raw authenticity makes this a strong contender for a Haitian City of God, but it seems too staged and narrow in its focus to properly convince as a documentary.
07/20/07
Top Critic
Arguably the film romanticises its morally challenged protagonists, but there's little hint of rose-tint in the fear, peril and hopelessness that seem to soak every frame like a cold sweat.
07/17/07
Top Critic
For a documentary, this film has one of the most gripping narratives of the year.
02/10/07
Packs an emotional punch, but that only partly makes up for the lack of a good story
06/26/08
Besides anti-Aristide diatribes mouthed a little too much on cue by these hooligans, there's also a French female relief worker mostly providing sexual relief to a gabby gangster. Not to mention 'relief worker' often as Third World code word for CIA spy.
11/22/07
Ghosts of Cite Soleil is a curiously unfocused, rambling film that never really settles on exactly what it wants to say or exactly which stories it wants to tell.
08/31/07
Leth ... gets us so close to life in Cité Soleil that we practically can hear the bullets and smell the garbage.
08/31/07
Related Forums
(2007 USA release/Docu)-GHOSTS OF CITE SOLEIL opens Wed, June 27th in NYC!!!
by: ReelReviewer.com 8/15/07
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(Docu/2007 USA release)-GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL opens Wednesday, June 27th!!!
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(Docu/2007 USA release)-GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL opens Wednesday, June 27th!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/21/07
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