Guadeloupe (France) / All works
Cinema
Bitter Sugar
Sucre amer
Christian Lara · 1998
Synopsis
When Bonaparte sets about restoring slavery, Ignace, a freed carpenter from Guadeloupe who has become a commander in the French army, takes up arms against the Republic. The film reopens his case by imagining a trial outside time before the tribunal of history, where a jury mixing white and black historical figures sits. The hearings and the deliberations alternate with the reconstruction of the events in Guadeloupe.
Context
Shot in 1998, the film was shown at festivals before being released in cinemas in France in 2002. In 1999 at FESPACO in Ouagadougou it received the Paul Robeson Prize for the best film of the diaspora. Among the historical figures summoned to the trial are Louis Delgrès, played by Luc Saint-Éloy, Victor Hugues and Victor Schœlcher. The cast also brings together Jean-Michel Martial, Robert Liensol and Anne-Marie Philipe. The film has circulated under the English title Bitter Sugar.
Who it is for
For seeing again the history of Guadeloupe in 1802 in the form of a trial, and hearing its actors answer one another.
Prizes and reception
Distinguished at the great festival of African cinema in Ouagadougou; shown in French cinemas four years after it was shot.
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