Blue Heart

Although this film is not autobiographical, it is largely inspired by the reality of my parents, my father’s story, and my mother’s epileptic illness. In 1981, my father and 22 other Haitians aboard a makeshift boat risked their lives in search of the American dream. But after about twenty days, their vessel was sent back to Haiti. My childhood was shaped by this American dream of my father. He firmly believed that one day, his feet would touch the soil of Miami, his eyes would see the skyscrapers of New York. Despite this obsession, he died without ever having had the chance to see that country.

In 2021, following his death, I decided to go to Port-de-Paix, in northern Haiti, the very place where my father had attempted his journey more than 40 years ago. What I saw there deeply moved me. What feeling do you have when you embark, knowing that your life hangs by a thread? What can you hope for in a country where you project yourself into the unknown, without knowing the language, the culture, or even the social codes? Does this American dream, this promise of a better life, truly exist? So many questions to which I may never have an answer. I left Port-de-Paix, but the faces, the stories still haunt me. So, I decided to take on this subject, but from the perspective of those who stay in the country, those who don’t leave. — Samuel Suffren