Everything started when director Richard Sénécal, after the release of “Barikad” promised to young actress Jessica Généus that he would write a script where she could show the many faces of her talent. Few months later, he showed her this story inspired by the true life of many young haitian women.
Having a story is not enough, one must find the money to make the film. After many unsuccessful attempts, Richard Sénécal discussed the project with fellow director and friend Wilkenson Bruna who agreed to find the funds if they could make the film for less than $ 40000.00. This was very difficult for a feature length movie to be done with such a small budget. It was even harder since the production wanted the best available Haitian crew and was trying to include some of the finest Haitian actors.
Hopefully, most people contacted for the project fond in love with the script. This allowed the production to have on the set highly talented people that they would not have been otherwise able to afford.
Another problem was the general social and political situation of Haiti at the time. Violence was at a high level and whole neighborhoods of the capital were controlled either by the gangs or by the rebels. Shooting locations were carefully selected to allow the crew to work even if the situation would degrade. It accidentally happened that the movie was shot in an area controlled by the former military.
The movie was shot in about 15 days. There were two major incidents : some heavy gunshots very near the set one day and a car accident without casualties but with severe consequences on the budget. Despite the very hard conditions (no electricity) everything was done on schedule.
The post-production took many months to complete and the movie was finished just on time to premiere at the opening night of the Jacmel Film Festival, a major annual event in Haiti.
