Murder in Pacot

Grappling with the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, a formerly well-to-do husband and wife rent their crumbling house in a tony Port-au-Prince neighborhood to European aid worker, Alex, while they relegate themselves to a shed in the backyard. When Alex’s brash young Haitian girlfriend Andrémise shows up, an emotionally fraught game of sexual intrigue and class warfare ensues. In Murder in Pacot, director Raoul Peck tackles the heady issues of race, class, gender and post-colonialism through the disillusioned eyes of his richly drawn characters. Newcomer Lovely Kermonde Fifi blazes onscreen as Andrémise—her overripe sexuality barely concealing a dexterous cunning—and Alex Descas (star of numerous Claire Denis films) brings typical steely reserve to the role of commanding patriarch. While the drama does eventually erupt into violence, the “murder” in Murder in Pacot is not so much about personal vendetta as it is about the killing of a social order, and even an entire civilization. Left behind to rebuild from the rubble, these lost souls must learn how to renegotiate their landscape, and their very lives. —Michelle Devereaux