Heading South (2005)

Three female tourists have their eyes opened while visiting the poverty-stricken and dangerous world of 1980s Haiti.

Director:

Laurent Cantet

Writers:

Laurent Cantet (scenario), Robin Campillo (scenario)

Stars:

Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlotte Rampling	...	Ellen
Karen Young	...	Brenda
Louise Portal	...	Sue
Ménothy Cesar	...	Legba
Lys Ambroise	...	Albert
Jackenson Pierre Olmo Diaz	...	Eddy
Wilfried Paul	...	Neptune
Anotte Saint Ford	...	Limousine Girl
Marie-Laurence Hérard	...	Airport Woman
Michelet Cassis	...	Charlie
Pierre-Jean Robert	...	Chico
Jean Delinze Salomon	...	Jérémy
Kettline Amy	...	Denise
Daphné Destin	...	Lossita
Guiteau Nestant	...	Frank

Storyline

Haiti, late 1970's. Sea, sex and sun for Ellen, Brenda and Sue, three North American ladies, on the wrong side of forty or fifty-odd, going through an enchanted interlude. Lonely, forsaken, neglected by men in their native countries, they can indulge here in carnal exultation without shame, thanks to handsome local young men they pay a few dollars. Ellen is a Boston French literature professor, Brenda, an unfulfilled wife from Savannah, Georgia and Sue, a sexually frustrated but good-natured Canadian factory worker. In this second garden of Eden they don't care too much about the neighboring poverty nor about Baby Doc's violent dictatorship. The trouble is that that two of the three women have sights on a single man, Legba. And Legba is beginning to be fed up with being a stud...

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Plot Keywords:

haiti | sex tourism | race relations | murder | lust | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

France Canada Belgium

Language:

French English

Release Date:

25 January 2006 (France)

Also Known As:

Heading South

Filming Locations:

Playa Bonita, Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$42,810, 9 July 2006

Gross USA:

$896,923, 24 November 2006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Haut et Court,Les Films Séville,France 3 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min 105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Part of the film was to be shot in Haiti but only one week's filming took place because political events prevented the crew from staying longer. The rest of the film was shot in the Dominican Republic, in neighboring Santo Domingo.

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Goofs

When Brenda is desperately looking for Legba and she wanders around the village at night, one of the guys she crosses by is wearing a Larry Johnson NBA New York Knicks basketball jacket with number 2. Larry Johnson played for the Knicks in the mid '90s.

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Quotes

Ellen: I turned 55, last month. There's nothing in Boston for women over 40. Don't contradict me. I've checked out every bar in that goddam, stuck-up city. And there's nothing there that's even close to Legba. How was such a handsome boy born here? On this dungheap.

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Connections

Featured in The Look (2011)

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Soundtracks

Sobo
Traditional
Performed by Ti Koka et Wanga Negès

User Reviews

Boring and Overrated

Three middle-aged women that have boring lives travel to the Hotel Petite Anse, in Port Prince, Haiti, to have good-time with sex and beach. Brenda (Karen Young), from Savannah, Georgia, has left her husband and returned to the hotel seeking out the local gigolo Legba (Ménothy Cesar), a young man with a sculptural body that gave her first orgasm three years ago. However, she finds that Legba is "dating" the lonely Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), a literature teacher from Boston. Ellen introduces the frustrated Canadian Sue (Louise Portal) that works in Montreal in the storage department of a factory to Brenda, and disputes with the new acquaintance the sexual favors of Legba. However, the youngster has a serious problem and is hunted by a violent man.

The deceptive "Vers le Sud" is a boring and overrated soap-opera that goes nowhere. Despite the theme, the director does not dare and makes a conventional movie with no eroticism or sexual tension among the characters that are shallow and uninteresting. Charlotte Rampling is still a beautiful woman but the scene where she mentions that she is fifty-five years old is absolutely unnecessary since she was almost sixty in 2005. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil) "Em Direção ao Sul" ("In the Direction of South")