Dreams of nationhood die as a drug empire is born in the Pearl of the Antilles
The year is 1987. After generations of turmoil and the overthrow of its latest dictator, Haiti is once again in crisis. A street activist, Sonny, leads a vigilante mob that prowls the streets of the old port city of Jérémie. Throughout the country, similar vengeful groups seek retribution against anyone or anything associated with the former dictator. Their primary targets are voodoo and the dictator's secret police. Even amidst the bloodshed, Sonny serves as a role model to twelve-year-old Jacques Maurice. Small in stature, Jacques follows Sonny and the vigilantes as they mete out street justice, though he pleads forgiveness for their victims. But Jacques is hardened as he sees that despite a few new freedoms, most Haitians remain trapped in poverty and shackled by voodoo. He begins selling marijuana, convincing Sonny he'll stop as soon as he is able to pay for his education. As the young drug lord immerses himself in violence and materialism, Sonny faces his own inadequacies-his failure as both a role model for Jacques and an advocate for Haiti realizing its dream of true nationhood and the promise of its heroic 1804 slave revolt founding.
