From “Fargo,” to “Snatch,” to Antoine Fuqua’s “Dope,” crime comedies, with their absurdist natures and memorable characters, remain darlings to moviegoers. And now with the expansion of the Caribbean film scene, a brand new crime comedy is grabbing viewer’s attention, especially as it comes out of Haiti.

“Kafou,” centers around Doc and Zoe, two men tasked with delivering a bound and gagged man to an exact location. Vague in further details, they are given three very specific instructions: don’t open the windows, don’t open the trunk and don’t stop the car, for any reason. But of course, the two ‘green’ criminals do not follow these instructions, and comedic, harrowing, and even spiritual experiences ensue to the end.

Director Bruno Mourral, delivers a gripping, audacious blend of buddy comedy and neo-noir, which is by turns, darkly funny and unnerving. As critic Kirk Bhajan notes, as Doc and Zoe become swept into the, “ugliness of their world, helpless to the machinations of forces way beyond their control,” “Kafou” also has a morbidity and brutality showing, “Mourral pulls no punches.”  Their dark journey is also very spiritual – Kafou, is voodoo for where worlds intersect and meet the ‘invisible’ world – and Lanier continues, “Whether it’s a cruise down the river Styx or just a couple of guys in a Nissan trying to make a buck, “Kafou” is a trip worth taking.

Haitian filmmaker Shirley Bruno’s short film “Tezen,” precedes “Kafou.”  Inspired by folklore, a young woman becomes entranced by a spirit which provides her, and her family, pure water. Her family devours the delicious water until they begin to suspect the origin of its taste. In this poetic film starring all non-actors from one family, Third Horizon’s Jonathan Ali, says, it possesses a, “mythic, dreamlike quality.”

“Kafou” director Bruno Mourral and “Tezen” director Shirley Bruno will be in attendance for post-screening Q&A.

The Caribbean Film Series is presented by the Caribbean Film Academy, BAMcinématek and The Luminal Theater’s theatrical offshoot the Brooklyn Cinema Collective. This edition of the Caribbean Film Series is in partnership with Haiti Cultural Exchange.

KAFOU
by Bruno Mourral
Haiti | 2017 | 51 min

With Jasmuel Andri, Rolaphton Mercure, Manfred Marcelin

When they’re charged with making a delivery for a kidnapper, two friends are plunged into the dangerous world of Haiti’s criminal underbelly for a night of bad decisions and worse consequences. Director Bruno Mourral delivers a gripping, audacious blend of buddy comedy and neo-noir that is by turns darkly funny and unnerving.

preceded by

TEZEN
by Shirley Bruno
Haiti | 2017 | 26 min

Tezen courtesy of Shirley Bruno

In this traditional folktale retold entirely with a cast of non-actors from one family made of three generations, a restless daughter meets a spirit who gives her pure water. Her family devours the delicious water until they begin to suspect more than the origin of its taste.

The Caribbean Film Series, presents feature films made by Caribbean filmmakers, which highlight the richness, uniqueness, and viability of Caribbean cinema to Brooklyn, home to the largest population of Caribbean nationals in the United States, and to all New York City residents and visitors.