Marie Madeleine

In the follow-up to her 2021 narrative feature debut Freda, Gessica Généus boldly reimagines the Biblical tale of Mary Magdalene set in vibrant Jacmel, Haiti. Marie Madeleine (played by Généus), a fiercely independent sex worker, carries a razor in her mouth during dates with clients and lives a bohemian lifestyle alongside the other women in her brothel. 

After Marie collapses in the street, she is rescued by Joseph (Béonard Monteau), the dutiful and sexually repressed son of an evangelical preacher. He attends to her while harried nurses casually call her “whore” in the hospital hallway. 

The city itself becomes a character, its constant soundscape underscoring the island’s conflicting rhythms of lapping waves, boisterous street festivals and parades, radio broadcasts of religious sermons, and parties spilling out into the streets. 

Généus interjects moments of sublime surrealism as Marie and Joseph become closer — and she inspires him to pursue desires that his stern pastor father does not condone.  All of their worlds collide explosively when the pastor opens a church directly across from Marie’s brothel and aggressively campaigns its madam to close up shop.

Shot in gorgeously saturated colours by Canadian cinematographer Nicolas Canniccioni (How to Have Sex, TIFF ’23), Marie Madeleine — named, in fact, for the protagonist’s grandmother — revels in the spirituality and daily lives of the island’s people. It celebrates forms of expression: dance, poetry, song, and sexuality in all the ways that they lead one back to their true self.

ROBYN CITIZEN

Content advisory: mature themes, sexual content, some violence, homophobic content