Mange, ceci est mon corps

  • 105'
  • France
  • 2007
Eat, for This Is My Body is powerful and lyrical surrealism. A political and allegorical pamphlet about Haiti, the fatherland of director Michelange Quay's parents. Once Haiti was the great coffee and sugar producer for Europe, a rich colony that became independent of France in 1804 after an army of Napoleon's soldiers was beaten by the proud, black population that had thrown off the yoke of slavery in 1791. The past 200 years did not bring much solace to Haiti: American occupation, gruesome dictatorship and corruption. Now Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, where underdevelopment, civil war, crime, voodoo and illiteracy seem to be inextricably entangled and child labour cannot be distinguished from slavery.
That is the country to which the minutes long majestic opening scene of Eat... leads us. From the blue ocean, we fly in, over housing on the coast, over a slum neighbourhood, getting deeper and deeper into the country, to an old plantation. Quay focuses on the colonial heritage, on the age old contradictions - 'relations' - between black and white. In a large house, we see in stylised, melancholy tableaux vivants for instance the poetic considerations of a very pale old lady on her sick bed. Later, her daughter receives a group of young black kids. The servant, like the rest of the cast played by amateurs, mysteriously changes into an albino. (GT)

Director
Michelange Quay
Premiere
European premiere
Countries of production
France, Haiti
Year
2007
Festival Edition
IFFR 2008
Length
105'
Medium
35mm
International title
Eat, for This Is My Body
Language
French
Producer
Tom Dercourt
Production Company
Cinéma DefactO
Sales
Memento Films International
Screenplay
Michelange Quay
Cinematography
Thomas Ozoux
Editor
Jean-Marie Lengellé
Production Design
Valérie Massadian
Sound Design
Nicholas Leroy
Music
Malik Mezzadri, Madioko
Cast
Sylvie Testud, Catherine Samie
Director
Michelange Quay
Premiere
European premiere
Countries of production
France, Haiti
Year
2007
Festival Edition
IFFR 2008
Length
105'
Medium
35mm
International title
Eat, for This Is My Body
Language
French
Producer
Tom Dercourt
Production Company
Cinéma DefactO
Sales
Memento Films International
Screenplay
Michelange Quay
Cinematography
Thomas Ozoux
Editor
Jean-Marie Lengellé
Production Design
Valérie Massadian
Sound Design
Nicholas Leroy
Music
Malik Mezzadri, Madioko
Cast
Sylvie Testud, Catherine Samie