‘Kidnapping Inc.’: Sundance Review

Dir. Bruno Mourral. Haiti/France/Canada. 2024. 105min

A wacky, violent, black comedy-thriller from the mean streets of beleaguered Haitian capital Port au Prince should be cause for celebration. With no film industry to speak of and a mere trickling of movies over the last decade, mostly from expatriate filmmakers, a new independent film from Haiti is indeed a rare thing, and will undoubtedly give a boost to Kidnapping Inc. on the world stage. But the film’s hodgepodge of styles, uneven tonal shifts and convoluted storytelling make it more of a curiosity than the cult item it aspires to be.

 Attempts to find poignancy in the chaos are outweighed by its frantic kookiness

Directed by commercial-trained Haitian-born filmmaker Bruno Mourral (maker of 2017’s mid-length festival winner Kafou), Kidnapping Inc. centers around the exploits of Doc (Jasmuel Andri) and Zoe (Rolaphton Mercure), two hapless gangsters who must deliver their newest kidnapping victim—a prominent Senator’s son—to their ruthless boss. But Doc, who is on ‘one last job’, and Zoe, the loose cannon, are just pawns in a wider conspiracy that hinges on the country’s upcoming Presidential election.

In an obvious nod to its Tarantino-esque influences, the film begins with Doc and Zoe exchanging witty banter about a profane dream involving a rat, while the trunk of their dilapidated car — where the Senator’s son lies tied up – won’t stay shut. Then a sudden outburst of violence seems to put their entire plan at risk; with the kidnapped man seemingly dead, how can they fulfill their mission? When the two petty criminals stumble upon a man who looks like their hostage, a new scheme takes shape. They kidnap the lookalike to pose as their victim, but their imposter’s eight-month-pregnant wife Laura (Haitian actress-director Gessica Geneus) also comes along for the ride, complicating the plan.

Meanwhile, the girlfriend of the Senator’s son, green-eyed Audrey (Anabel Lopez) is desperately scrambling to come up with the ransom money to free him. She is, however, also having an affair with another man, who is surreptitiously working with the corrupt authorities. Other figures come into the mix: a grotesque head of police with his own nefarious plans and an ominous motorcycle-riding, gun-wielding, black-clad assassin who is hot on the trail of Doc and Zoe. All of the stories eventually coalesce as we come to learn the true motives and multiple players behind the kidnapping plot, but it takes a lot of detours and people yelling at each other to finally get there.

Subtle it is not. Kidnapping Inc. wavers between over-the-top action scenes, burlesque broad comedy and sober political critique. One early gag features a snappily edited chase scene, shot from multiple angles, down the alleys and across the shanty rooftops of the capital’s slums, where Doc and Zoe get sandwiched against a naked woman washing herself in a cramped passageway. Her cries of “rape” are not funny, even if they are meant to be. The film’s most memorable set-piece involves Laura’s impromptu birth in the backseat of a car, with Don playing midwife alongside an eager crowd of onlookers, at the same time as a high-stakes football match unfolds with the legendary Messi scoring a big goal. There are lots of cheers.

Amid the madcap activities, one of the film’s main thematic throughlines — outlined in the film’s early credits — are the ongoing tensions between Haiti’s majority Black population and its minority ruling Mulatto elite; the latter embodied by the Senator, his daughter, and the upper-class Laura. There are hints of this along the way, as Laura will do anything to give birth in Miami rather than Haiti, along with the Senator’s bid for the Presidency despite his mixed Haitian-European background.

By the end of the film, Kidnapping Inc. manages to level a savage critique of the colonialist influences and ceaseless cycles of violence and corruption that continue to plague the country — a place that director Mourrai appears to both loathe and love. Dedicated to Mourrai’s father, who was murdered in Haiti in 2005, Kidnapping Inc. is undoubtedly a warped postcard of this nation, both in its story and its making. (According to production notes, three weeks before the film’s initial shooting date, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and three crew members were kidnapped during production.) Indeed, one can sense the anguish and rancor bubbling under the surface but, ultimately, the film’s attempts to find poignancy in the chaos is outweighed by its frantic kookiness.