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On Friday, July 16, 2021, at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, Haitian director Gessica Généus’ feature-length fiction film “Freda” won the special mention for the Prix François Chalais, awarded by TV5 Monde and France TV.

The information was confirmed by the editor-in-chief of Le Nouvelliste newspaper, Mr. Frantz Duval, on his Twitter account.

“Je fais mon cinéma avec Gessica Généus Freda has just been awarded the special mention Découverte of the Prix François Chalais at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival,” Mr. Duval tweeted.

Gessica Généus is not the only winner of this year’s Prix François Chalais. Alongside her, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi also walked away with the prize for his film “Un Héros”.

With her first feature film “Freda”, Haitian actress Gessica Généus was one of the stars of the 7th art at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, held from July 6 to 17.

While the country is experiencing an unprecedented political crisis, aggravated by the assassination of de facto president Jovenel Moïse at his private residence on the night of July 6-7, 2021, its sons and daughters continue to make it proud. Both social networks and traditional media are talking about Freda, directed by Gessica Généus.

Freda at a glance

According to an article in the newspaper Ayibopost, this drama portrays three women who, by exposing their stories and the difficult choices that have punctuated their lives. Freda is produced by three production companies: Ayizan prod (Haiti), Sanosi prod (France) and Merveille prod (Benin).

Freda (Néhémie Bastien) is a young woman who lives with her family. Her family consists of her mother, Janette (Fabiola Remy), her sister Esther (Djanaïna François) and her little brother Moïse (Kerven Cantave). They all live together at the bottom of the city, in a working-class neighborhood. Popular in the sense that it’s crowded, lively and precarious, but not extreme. The cast includes Freda’s cousin Géraldine (Gaëlle Bien-Aimé), her aunt Marlène (Paula Clermont), boyfriend Yeshua (Jean Jean) and D-fi (Rolaphton Mercure), a spirited young singer and revolutionary.