What does it take to bring a family back together? What would you do if you had no choice but to be around your family after years of silence?
Filmmaker Yao Ramesar tackles this question with his feature film Fortune for All, which he describes as a tender ode to the radio plays of his childhood in the Caribbean of the 1970s.
In the film, three Caribbean siblings are reunited by the death of their eldest brother. Marooned on the family’s coastal estate for a period of isolation, they begin talking after years of silence.
Fortune for All features well-known actors Michael Cherrie, Samara Lallo, and Nickolai Salcedo, with Shea Best as director of photography.
Ramesar said he was inspired to write the script after going to a funeral.
“I had been directing two other features, Last Dance of The Karaoke King in India and Shade in South Africa, and on my return to Trinidad, I attended a funeral in Tunapuna. Listening to the eulogy, delivered by Earl Best, something clicked and I slipped into a bar opposite the service, in search of a napkin and a pen to jot down the story idea for a film.
“The story was about a Trini family burying their eldest brother before retreating to their home for a period of bereavement.
"To raise the dramatic stakes, I wrote that the brother's death was one of the first from a virus that was sweeping the island. In the middle of production, in March 2020, the film was shut down by the real thing. After a two-year hiatus we resumed production in Tobago.”
The film was selected in 2023 for the Festival International du Film PanAfricain de Cannes, the Cacique Film Awards, the Ischia Global Film Festival, the African Film Festival Atlanta, the Lulea International Film Festival, and now the TT Film Festival.
[caption id="attachment_1036572" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Lead actor of Fortune for All Michael Cherrie -[/caption]
Ramesar said Fortune for All is 100 per cent local, and was created in TT by and for the people of TT.
“Even the film's opera score is performed by the TT singer
Natalia Dopwell, to the delight of audiences when it screened in Italy in July.
"The audience that will best understand all the idiosyncrasies and nuances of the film is here, and I hope that they think,
'Look We!'
which is the festival's theme.”
Ramesar said he would be dedicating both showings of the film during the TTFF to the memory of his mentor Sir Horace Ové, who died on September 16. He said a prize would be dedicated in Ové’s name at the UWI Film Degree Programme in October. Ramesar is the co-ordinator for and a lecturer in the programme.
Fortune for All will be screened twice at the TT Film Festival, at MovieTowne, Port of Spain, on Sunday and Tuesday at 8 pm.
The post Ramesar spotlights family in Fortune For All appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
