THE LAST MEAL is a cinematographic approach of duty of memory. Through this film, I wanted to lead towards an engaged reflection of the scars left by de past by Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorship on an entire generation of Haitians between 1971 and 1986, as well as on their descendants and heirs of intergenerational trauma. I used cinema to bring to life the courage, resistance, honor and strength of the survivors of the high place of torture that was Fort Dimanche prison. Long held in taboo, silence and oblivion, this film finally gives a voice to survivors of horror. For almost 10 years, I spoke with survivors of the former Duvalier’s dungeon. Thus, the majority of incarceration scenes brought to the screen are inspired by their stories. So that we can finally celebrate the true heroes, this film aims to be an outlet for an entire nation, both for those who experienced the dictatorship up close and for generations to come. I wanted to make an intimate film whose story takes place in two different eras. The first takes place in Haïti in 1974, when the main character, Reynold Celestin, is imprisoned in Fort-Dimanche. The second in 2011 in Montreal, when Mr. Celestin entered palliative care. This coincides with the return of the former dictator to Haïti after 25 years of exile. Although these places and eras are different in space and time, they both represent spaces of confinement where Reynold is condemned to die. These are two confinements which echo each other. Two cramped, austere and distressing environments. When constructing the film, it was important that the cinematographic treatment of the two spaces was similar since dramatically, the hospital room is an extension of the Fort-Dimanche prison’s cell. I like to say that I placed the story in the middle of a culinary drama! The hot vapors coming from Tati Dado’s kitchen added to the visual of The Greater Antilles food contract wildly the “anorexia” atmosphere of the prison and hospital. My intention was to create the indecency of food in the face of starvation. The issue of the main character’s death, broken by dictatorship, is directly linked to his deprivation of food. I wanted the viewer to feel the temptation Reynolds feels in front of the meals that his daughter Vanessa serves him at his bedside. That we can be hungry for him! Understand the food distress in which he finds himself, to grasp the starvation which refers to he “hunger of the soul”: His appetite to finally live a true and meaningful relationship with Vanessa. I wanted to show the progression in the father-daughter’s rapprochement by staging the physical space of the hospital room. In fact, from the scene where Vanessa visits her father for the first time, until the last scene, she gradually gets a little closer. Whether literally or figuratively, the rapprochement of father and daughter reflects the fragility of the forgiveness process. At the time of a sad assessment of life, there is still hope for the father who wants to repair his disastrous relationship. I wanted death not to mark the end of the bond between the two, but paradoxically, she initiates in reconciliation. This film is a kind of tragedy heading towards the light.