Zombi Child

3 stars

Despite opening with bloodshed (thanks to a slice-and-dice scene with a giant fish) Zombi Child is not the slasher the name may suggest. Rather, it is an uncovering of the Haitian history behind the term ‘Zombi’. The story follows Haitian earthquake survivor Melissa as she becomes acquainted with the love-struck Fanny at the elite Maison d’éducation de la Légion d’honneur. Alongside the schoolgirls story we are taken back to Haiti in 1962 where Clairvius Mackenson Biju is cursed, killed and, with this being a zombie film, I think you can guess what happens next...

It is rare in modern cinema to find a picture filmed in Haiti; the stunning tranquillity and vibrant passion of the island mean that director Bertrand Bonello’s efforts pay off gorgeously on-screen. Bonello’s aim was to portray the voodoo Haitian zombie origin, as evidenced by his comment at his Zombi Child Q&A at the London Film Festival. Feeling, however, that it was not within his cultural jurisdiction to portray it directly, he invented the French storyline to tie it all together. The effect of this feels disjointed at first, with the scenes in Haiti playing like a docudrama and the girls’ school scenes like a very well-behaved version of St Trinian’s. The decision to straddle the two storylines finally bears fruit in the final act where connections between Clarvius and the girls begin to emerge. Some of the film’s sense of respect for Haiti seems to dissolve towards the end when clichéd Voodoo conventions are used, against which I had assumed the movie was trying to fight.

Despite being a docudrama, Bonello leaves a lot to unpack thematically. Melissa is classified as one of the few people of colour in her school, thanks to Bonello’s ceaseless panning across classrooms, corridors and canteens to portray the overwhelming white homogeneity of the all-girls boarding school. When Melissa then reveals her aunt is a Mambo (Voodoo priestess), there is a lot less tolerance from the other girls when she subsequently starts to behave strangely, failing to notice the changes in Fanny. With a Mambo as an aunty and having lived through the 2010 Haitian earthquakes, it seems Melissa is made to be an abstract symbol of 1st and 2nd generation Hattians living in France. Bonello is sure to show that Melissa is able to connect well with her peers through their music and pop culture, while also being reminded by family not to forget her origins.

Using Bonello’s words ‘A zombie is someone who keeps their head down’, we see the different types of ‘zombie’ we may encounter in day-to-day life. Those who are living and breathing but feel nothing, those who are reborn thanks to medical advancements, and, most blood-curdling of all, the Zombi that were real in Haiti decades ago. If you are looking for something without heaps of blood for Halloween this year, I present to you Zombi Child. I can guarantee you will leave believing that Zombies are real.

Zombi Child is available to watch on MUBI, an online streaming service free for students from 18th October – 16th November 2019.