The Narrative Feature, Ludi premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. The lead role of Ludi is portrayed by the naturally stunning Haitian actress Shein Mompremier, best known from her recurring role as Chenoa on CW’s Black Lightning. The film is the feature directorial debut for Haitian writer/director Edson Jean and is inspired by his mother’s experience, a proud Haitian woman who migrated to Miami in search of a better life. SXSW 2021: ‘Ludi’ Review
The drama chronicles a day in the life of desperate, cash-strapped Ludi Alcidor, an over-worked young Haitian immigrant working as a nursing assistant with seniors in Miami. Living with a roommate in Miami’s Little Haiti, she earns a low hourly wage and struggles to send money back home to her cousin regularly. On this one crazy day, Ludi finds herself under even more pressure when her little cousin pleads for her to send money for a special dress for her big day- her graduation. Her cousins believe Ludi is doing well and the small amount of money should be no issue. She is in America where opportunity is everywhere, right? She should be doing great and not poor like they are, right? But she isn’t. She is working herself to utter exhaustion, and we see the frustration in her eyes. She just isn’t getting anywhere. S
We follow Ludi as she struggles with cultural differences, clashes with her landlord, bus driver, co-workers, supervisors an clients while chasing an American Dream, moving further out of reach. Mompremier’s acting comes across as natural. Watching her we feel her exhaustion and cry along with her in her hopelessness. We want her to win.
Speaking about the role to WLRN in South Florida, Mompremiere said she was “channeling the experiences from all of the Haitian women in her family who made financial sacrifices in the U.S. while supporting cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles in Haiti.”
Screenwriter/director Edson Jean says he took some elements of the story from his Mother’s early days in Miami struggling to make ends meet as a nurse and said of the film: “I do also want to celebrate and point a finger toward a resilience that exists in positivity because our people are not like, ‘Oh, we’re struggling, we don’t have this or that. Life is so terrible.’ There’s this positivity and this ambition that actually keeps us going in a way that isn’t so demoralizing…these themes are not about, ‘Oh, woe is us, woe is our culture….”
Jean is a Haitian-American actor/writer/director and an IFP Narrative Labs alum. He most recently was nominated for a Streamy and MIPCOM award for directing all eight (23 minute) episodes of his dramedy, “Grown,” for Complex Networks, which also starred Mompremier, and aired on HBO in 2012.
“Ludi” is the first film to emerge from Miami’s Oolite Arts Microbudget Feature Film Cinematic Arts Residency program, established in 2019
As an actor, Edson Jean was most recently seen in A24’s academy award winning Moonlight, Warner Bros. Pictures’ War Dogs, HBO’s “Ballers” and Netflix’s “Bloodline.”
Director: Edson Jean
Screenwriters: Edson Jean, Joshua Jean-Baptiste
Producers: Fabiola Rodriguez, Mark Pulaski, Edson Jean
Cast: Shein Mompremier, Alan Myles Heyman, Madelin Marchant, Success St. Fleur Jr., Kerline Alce, Plus Pierre, Patrice DeGraff Arenas, Farah Larrieux
Director of Photography: Juan Camilo Barriga
Editor: Jonathan Cuartas
Original Score: Darnell Monestime
Running Time: 81 minutes
Language: English, Haitian Creole and Spanish
SXSW 2021: ‘Ludi’ Review
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