Personal and political life in Haiti are brought sharply into focus in “Freda,” a powerful and resolutely unsentimental drama about a determined young university student who must decide whether to …
,” a powerful and resolutely unsentimental drama about a determined young university student who must decide whether to stay in her deeply troubled country or seek a future elsewhere. Weaving documentary footage of civil unrest into an intelligent and compassionate screenplay that examines what it means to be a Haitian woman in a society stacked heavily in favor of men, “Freda” marks an outstanding feature debut for actress-singer-filmmaker.
“Freda” is set in 2018 and features footage of violent protests against President Jovenal Moise, under whose leadership vast sums of public money related to the PetroCaribe oil deal with Venezuela went missing. Moise’s assassination on July 7, 2021, is the latest in a long line of traumatic events in the Caribbean republic since it declared independence from France in 1804 and became the first sovereign nation to unconditionally abolish slavery.
Among those who have fled Haiti is Freda’s boyfriend, Yeshua , an artist who relocated to Santo Domingo after being shot in his sleep by a stray bullet from the street. There’s a lovely tenderness between the couple when he returns for an exhibition of his work in Port-au-Prince. Freda’s emotional agony is palpable when Yeshua urges her to give up on Haiti and start a new and safer life with him in the Dominican Republic.
Geneus’ richly detailed screenplay has plenty to say about social and political ills but never wallows in misery and makes Haiti’s dynamic cultural and creative environment integral to Freda’s story.
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