8 Best Movies Set in or About Haiti

8 Movies Set in or About Haiti

Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Haiti.

1. 

   1. My Internship in Canada

   Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre · 2015

   An independent member of parliament from a remote Quebec riding suddenly holds the deciding vote on whether Canada will go to war, and a naive young intern from Haiti helps him navigate the ensuing political circus. A sharp Canadian political satire.

   Film notes
2. 

   2. Lydia Bailey

   1952

   In 1802, a young Boston lawyer travels to war-torn Haiti to settle an estate and finds himself swept up in the island's revolution against French rule as he searches for a woman named Lydia Bailey. A historical adventure-romance.

   Film notes
3. 

   3. Ego Trip

   2015

   A fading Quebec talk-show host, desperate to revive his ratings and his family life, concocts a stunt involving Haiti that quickly spins out of his control. A French-Canadian comedy.

   Film notes
4. 

   4. The Comedians

   1967

   American and British visitors staying at a faded hotel are drawn into the fear and intrigue of Haiti under the brutal Duvalier regime and its dreaded secret police. A tense political drama adapted from Graham Greene's novel.

   Film notes
5. 

   5. The Serpent and the Rainbow

   1988

   A scientist travels to Haiti to track down a mysterious powder rumored to turn people into zombies, and is drawn into a terrifying world of voodoo, political violence, and the boundary between life and death. Wes Craven's atmospheric horror, loosely based on a true account.

   Film notes
6. 

   6. Heading South

   Vers le sud · 2005

   In late-1970s Haiti, three middle-aged Western women vacation at a beach resort where they pay for the company and affection of local young men, oblivious to the poverty and political menace just beyond the sand. Laurent Cantet's incisive drama.

   Film notes
7. 

   7. White Zombie

   1932

   On a Haitian plantation, a lovestruck landowner enlists a sinister voodoo master to turn the woman he covets into a mindless zombie, with monstrous consequences. An eerie early horror film starring Bela Lugosi.

   Film notes
8. 

   8. Soldiers and Women

   1930

   A philandering U.S. Marine captain stationed in Haiti carries on affairs with the wives of two fellow officers, until jealousy erupts into deadly consequences. An early sound-era melodrama.

   Film notes