Haiti, five years after the earthquake, in a coastal town forgotten by the rest of the world. The memory of the major disaster still haunts the villagers; but life goes on… Guetty Felin’s feature film debut Ayiti mon amour presents three intertwining stories: the coming-of-age tale of a teenage boy, Orphée, who is grieving the loss of his father and develops superpowers following a supernatural encounter; then the story of his only friend, Jaurès, an elderly fisherman tormented by the environmental degradation around him and also pre-occupied with his sick wife; and then there’s mysterious Ama, a wandering soul and the muse of an uninspired writer.

»The film was born out of grief and mourning. I wrote the first treatment on the heels of the devastating earthquake. At the same time I did not want it to be just about grief and loss. I think it is more about lost souls, alive and dead who are looking for the meaning of life and home.
The sea is a main character in the film because it represents the cycle of life. It also represents the original birthplace of mankind; that is if you believe that we are descendants of water mammals. There’s a Voudou belief that when a person dies their soul goes underwater and stay there for a year and a day. The family must perform a ritual that will help the soul to return on land. I often wondered about the souls that never made it to land, the ones that got trapped, so I wanted to create a sort of ritual through the film that allowed them to come home at least symbolically.«
– Guetty Felin

Film series Hope & Fear