Mountains: Monica Sorelle’s quiet epic of Caribbean resilience

A sudden, deafening crack rings out at the start of Mountains, the debut feature from Haitian-American director Monica Sorelle. A monstrous crane’s jaws unhinge wide, preparing to rip apart a roof with ravenous greed before swallowing up large gulps of water from a pool. It’s a moment of sheer violence, but the tension dissipates as we are introduced to Haitian construction worker Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), sitting on a makeshift seat made of disfigured scrap and sucking sweet juice from a mango. Unlike the crane, he is more deliberate with his consumption. He stretches time where the beast quickens it.

Set in the neighbourhood of Little Haiti in Miami, Mountains shadows Xavier on his Sisyphean American dream in which – amid the threat of redevelopment inching closer and closer towards his home – he is forced to grapple with the irony of his own line of work. 

“The South got something to say”, reads Sorelle’s Instagram bio. With her debut, she says it all with very limited words. Working from a script comprising only 50 pages, she guided Nazaire to a measured performance of great stoicism and charm. Speaking as a panellist at the Mind the Gap Summit, Sorelle attributed her striking humility as a filmmaker to her experiences as a woman in the film sector. Having witnessed the industry standard of “bulldozing your way through”, she pledged to adopt a more nurturing stance – an approach evoking the image of Xavier nursing on the stone fruit in the face of the disruptive crane.

Editor Jonathan Cuartas has also applauded Sorelle’s methods, relishing her capacity to trust his sensibilities. His editing lingers, living in moments beyond what is narratively deemed necessary, and letting the compa music – inspired by the watery sounds of Mati Diop’s Atlantique (2019) – dictate the tempo. The flighty soundtrack, composed of wistful winds and tight twinkling strings, distorts and reverbs as it drips.

There’s a textural dimension to Mountain’s vision of its characters and community – even down to its notable buildings. Production designer Helen Peña and art director Nadia Wolff personify the home; every item placed, hung or draped with intention. As Sorelle says of the space: “Even though you’re not there, you know what the temperature is set at and you know what it smells like, and you feel at home.” Lotto cards, a tub of vaseline, and a bottle of prescription pills clutter the night table. The project’s origins as a documentary pierce through the film’s skin, the cinéma-vérité textures blurring the lines between reality and fiction, creating a grounded experience that makes the surrealist finale ever more poignant. 

Wolff’s hand-sewn pillow is nestled at the head of the bed as mango-sweet-nothings pour from Xavier’s lips onto his adoring wife, Esperance (Sheila Anozier), the ‘Poto Mitan’ (Haitian-Creole for ‘pillar in the middle’) of the household. “Let’s do a little dreaming together, love”, he chimes, coaxing her to share in his fantasy of planting soursop trees at the real estate property where he has been sowing his wishes and desires. 

This is not your ‘standard American indie’. This is a Caribbean tale. “So” – in Sorelle’s words – “we’re going to sit in it and it’s going to be hot and sticky”. The molasses pacing enshrines the markings of Little Haiti, creating an archive of space and time before it is erased, washed away by Miami’s cold, creeping shoreline of gentrification, which slowly strips the neighbourhood of its colour. The white noise of insidious cold calls. White business cards, hard hats, hotels and faces. Brown terracotta walls, creamy sòs pwa bean sauce served over rice, and shining faces under the glowing sun.

Krik? Krak. And with the Haitian call and response, which sets in motion the oral storytelling tradition, Sorelle becomes a griot, interweaving stories, songs and experiences with time. Mountains, much like the other works within the Black Debutantes season of early works by Black women directors, is a preservation project. Sorelle contributes to a growing archive of Black women directors’ cinema. In a rare glimpse of vulnerability, Xavier shares with his son (portrayed by Chris Renois) that in Haiti, he would sit for hours on the beach, staring at the mountains, wondering what was on the other side. But in America, there are only buildings, and as for dreaming, there is simply no time.

Mountains has its UK premiere on 29 May as part of the Black Debutantes season at BFI Southbank.