Port-au-Prince, 21 June, 2016: ‘Au-delà des montagnes, encore des montagnes’, a 28-minute film by the French actor Lambert Wilson, is screened throughout Haiti.

Commissioned by Canal+, Wilson’s film sets-out to profile some of the people working to secure the ravines of Morne l’Hôpital – a project run in partnership by FJMH (Fondation pour les jeunes de Morne l’Hôpital) and ONJPSH (Organisation Nationale des jeunes pour sauver Haiti).

The initiative is supported by MINUSTAH’s Community Violence Reduction (CVR) section which works with Haiti’s most marginalized urban neighborhoods to reduce ‘the draw’ of criminal activities by offering regular livelihood opportunities on environmental and infrastructural projects. “I found the project had real logic” explains Wilson, “and I was intrigued by all those working on it.” 

Those featured in the film include Carlo, a resident of Martissant; Lamina a mother of eight living in Boutillier, Jules from Fontamara and Nadège from Morne l’Hôpital. “In addition to profiling these extraordinary people and the CVR project” explains Wilson, “I wanted to convey a sense of the complexity of Haiti today and, of course, the energy and beauty of a country that never ceases to amaze me.”

Broadcast of the film was framed within an edition of MINUSTAH TV show Sa w di nan sa, and transmitted on TNH (Télévision Nationale d'Haït) as well as 16 other television throughout the 10 departments of the country.

This special edition of Sa w di nan sa includes an introduction to Wilson’s film, and a studio discussion (following the film) hosted by Violine Thelusma, with guests Pierre Mérité Dieusibon from MINUSTAH’s CVR unit and Sociology Professor Lucien Maurepas, Ph.D, to be viewed also on MINUSTAH online TV: http://bit.ly/28KAdUT

Lambert Wilson’s film has already been shown internationally on Canal+ and at a private screening at Palais de l’Elysée for the French President Francois Hollande and members of the Haitian community in Paris – including writer Dany Laferrière and the painter Hervé Télémaque.

Famous for his roles in critical and popular successes such as ‘Des Dieux et des Hommes’ (Grand Prix au Festival de Cannes 2010), Lambert Wilson is internationally recognized for his interpretation of the Merovingian in two episodes the ‘Matrix trilogy’ (2003). He will soon be seen playing Commandant Jacques Cousteau in the film biography ‘L’Odyssée’. A respected theater director, ‘Au déla des montagnes...’ is Wilson’s first experience as a film director.