SistaGod
| SistaGod | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert Yao Ramesar |
| Produced by | Robert Yao Ramesar |
| Written by | Robert Yao Ramesar |
| Starring | Evelyn Caesar Munroe Michael Cherrie Nicole Minerve Indigo Minerve Matthew McHugh Yashmin Campagne |
| Narrated by | Evelyn Caesar Munroe |
| Music by | Anderson Cave Ella Andall |
| Cinematography | Edmund I. Attong |
| Edited by | Debra Lezama |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
72 minutes |
| Country | Trinidad and Tobago |
| Language | English |
SistaGod is a 2006 Trinidadian fantasy drama, the first in a trilogy by director Robert Yao Ramesar. The film stars Evelyn Caesar Munroe, who also serves as the narrator of the story. She plays the role of Mari (the Sista God), who undergoes a transition from a girl who cheats death to a harbinger of death itself.
The film is very surreal, with a haunting musical score and Orisha songs sung by female calypsonian Ella Andall. Despite the genre, there are practically no visual effects and hardly any dialogue in this movie, but instead there is a greater emphasis on imagery. Trinidadian Carnival plays an integral part in the film, with the use of traditional characters that are still popular today.
The film begins during the early 1990s. A white American soldier, serving in the Gulf War as a sniper, is washed ashore on Trinidadian soil. He is shell-shocked from the war, with the mindset of a 12-year-old child. He is taken care of by an Afro-Trinidadian nurse, who helps rehabilitate him. Eventually, they fall in love.
Mari, the daughter of the soldier and the nurse, was conceived in a cemetery. Because the girl is dark-skinned, the soldier denies that she is his child, and leaves the mother. The nurse goes insane and is taken to an asylum, where she spends day after day staring at photos of her and the soldier. Mari is taken in by “Nan”, her adopted Hindu grandmother, in St. Joseph, Trinidad. They live near the cemetery where she claims she hears the souls of the dead trying to resurface.
One day, out of curiosity, Mari picks a bunch of poisoned berries from a tree and eats them. She does not die, but her tongue is darkened black. Nan creates an antidote for the poison, using medicinal herbs.
Her mother is eventually released from the asylum and takes Mari to church one day. When reaching the church, they view a woman and her three children. The woman, in Mari’s opinion, looks like Miss Universe. The three children (two boys and a girl) are her half-brothers and half-sister respectively. The two women stare at each other, frozen in the middle of the street. Mari’s mother walks off, leaving the family to walk the other way.
At age eighteen, while Mari is sleeping one night, he has a premonition of the future. After this dream, she realizes that she is the New Messiah. Her presence on Earth will herald an event known as the “Apocalypso”, after which “everyone will disappear”.
...
Wikipedia