There’s a Haitian proverb that says, dèyè mòn, gen mòn—behind mountains, there are mountains. Among other things, it’s an acknowledgment that there are always more obstacles to face. This proverb opens the new film titled Mountains, which is a quiet, thoughtful look at immigrant life in the United States. It’s also, ultimately, a fairly conventional one, though it’s one that reinforces the necessity of telling these stories.
Xavier is a Haitian immigrant living in Little Haiti in Miami with his wife, Esperance, and their son, Junior. Xavier works for a company that’s demolishing buildings and homes in his neighborhood as the area becomes more gentrified, and it’s clear he must compartmentalize the situation in order to do the work. Yes, he’s tearing down the place he lives, but someone is going to do it, and it’s work he needs. The family lives in a small home, but it’s one they love, and we see Xavier and Esperance often sitting together at the dinner table, talking, as Junior flits in and out, frustrating his father as we often imagine an Americanized young adult must frustrate his immigrant parents. Xavier knows how hard a person has to work in life, and despite his very humble success, he’s well aware there are more mountains ahead, and he needs Junior to understand this. Of course, Junior has a thing or two he hasn’t told his parents, and if they knew, they might actually feel a little less worried.
In broad strokes, these are things we often see in movies about first-generation immigrants, but there’s another Haitian proverb: Wòch nan dlo pa konnen mizè wòch nan soley. The rock in the water doesn’t know the suffering of the rock in the sun. That is, we can’t know what other people are going through. And so even if, by and large, we’ve seen this story, we must remember how good movies are at generating empathy, and we must remember these are the stories of what real people experience every day. It’s hard, hard work, but slowly, each person is building a life. Piti piti zwazo fè nich li.
Mountains is available on VOD.
