Friday, July 17, 2020

She Lives as a ZOMBI CHILD




Jeri Jacquin

Currently on DVD from director Bertrand Bonello and Film Movement comes the generational story of a ZOMBI CHILD.

Fanny has moved to France from Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 to live with her Aunt Kate (Katiana Milfort). Going to boarding school at Legion d'honneurshe makes friends with Melissa (Wislanda Louimat), a young girl who has the same malaise at Fanny.

Trying to help Fanny fit in, Melissa introduces her to friends to see if they will agree to let her into their clique. The young girl is also dealing with the emotions of her first love Pablo wanting to live in her summer romance.


Fanny has a story of her own to tell about her grandfather Clairvius (Mackenson Bijou), a man who became a victim of kidnapping and a voodoo culture. Clairvius is subjected to a life of

When Melissa learns of it, she secretly turns to Aunt Katy to make the pain of love go away. At the same time Fanny recounts to her new friends what they have seen and has no idea what is about to be unleashed.

Two cultures clash and something evil is about to be unleashed.

Labeque as Fanny is a young girl living so far away from everything she knows. In a new country, the only thing she shares is the language making friendship awkward. Labeque is lovely and exudes a face of a young girl caught between two worlds.

Louimat as Melissa is a young girl living in the dreams of the previous summer and the love of a boy named Pablo. She is determined to do anything possible to avoid the pain of reality. Meeting Fanny, Melissa thinks she may have found a way out of it. Louimat brings a sense of foreboding that is intense.

Milfort as Katy is a woman who understands the voodoo culture of her country and knows the dangers. Yet when Melissa comes to her with a request, she may hesitate but it is the power of that pulls her into danger.


Bijou as Clairvius has the saddest story to tell as it is based on the accounts of a man who claims to be have zombified in Haiti in 1962. What was done to him is beyond horrifying.

Other cast include: Sayyid El Alami as Pablo, Ginite Popote as Francina, Adile David as Salome, Mathilde Riu as Adele, Ninon Francois as Romy, Nehemy Pierre-Dahomey as Baron Samedi and Patrick Boucheronas the History teacher.

Film Movement, founded in 2002, is an award-winning independent and foreign film company that has released more than 250 feature films and shorts. Theatrical releases include American independent films, documentaries, and foreign arthouse titles catalog such directors as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Maren Ade, Jessica Hausner and Ciro Guerra and Melanie Laurent. Bluray and DVD films bring such directors as Eric Rohmer, Bolle August, King Hu, Sergio Corbucci and Luchino Visconti and many more. To discover what Film Movement is all about and find out more about what they have to offer please visit www.filmmovementplus.com.

ZOMBI CHILD is an Official Selection at Cannes, Toronto and New York Film Festival, winner of the Online Film Critics Society Special Achievement Award for "Best Non-U.S. Release and nominated for the Queer Palm at Cannes. The film can also be found on iTunes, Amazon and Vudu.


The DVD also include the Bonus Features of Audio Commentary by director Bertrand Bonello, Bonus Short Film "Child of the Sky" directed by Phillip Montgomery is the story of a young woman waking up in the desert lost and learns she was summoned by a woman and it all has a price.

ZOMBI CHILD is a riveting tale of a story of the past and how it has affected the generations since. Clairvius Narcisse is a victim of his own people causing grief and heart ache to his own family with a legacy steeped in the culture of voodoo.

The intertwining of stories with Fanny and Melissa are filled with teen angst, separation of home and family, desires and decisions that are destructive in ways neither could see coming.


The 'zombi' title brings the feeling that this is not exactly a walking dead story. Instead it is a story of life transformed into something more horrifying. The idea of a control so beyond understanding that it twists the very idea of what the possibilities of being a zombie truly are.

In the end - a generation of horror continues!

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