Haitian filmmaker turns heartbreak into art, earning international recognition

PORT-AU-PRINCE –“AbiZe,” a Haitian short film by director Luc Junior Ségur, created from deep personal heartbreak and shot against the backdrop of Haiti’s instability, is now a finalist at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF), earning nominations for Best Director – International Short Film and Best French Film.

 “AbiZe saved me, ” Ségur shared.  “AbiZe is more than a film; it’s a piece of my soul.” 

In late September, Haitian audiences will finally discover “AbiZe,” the 17-minute short film that took more than two years to complete, from late 2023 to early 2025, as political turmoil and violence repeatedly stalled production.

Despite these challenges, “AbiZe” has stood out on the festival circuit for its emotional honesty and restrained storytelling. Critics say the nominations highlight not only Ségur’s creative strength but also the universal resonance of a deeply personal story rooted in loss and silence.

At the heart of “AbiZe” lies a real wound. Inspired by a sudden and painful breakup that shattered the director’s own life, the film transforms the silence left by that absence into cinema. 

“The pain was so intense that at one point, I truly felt like I was losing myself forever. But instead of collapsing, I chose to create. Making this film became my way out. In many ways, it saved me. It gave me a language to express what I couldn’t explain — a way to survive something that felt senseless”

Luc Junior Ségur, Haitian filmmaker.

It portrays grief not through dialogue but through the weight of what cannot be said: buried emotions, solitude, introspection and the slow process of healing. For Ségur, silence was not an end, but a beginning — the starting point for a film that feels like a muted scream, a shattered mirror, and a deeply intimate truth made universal.

“The pain was so intense that, at one point, I truly felt like I was losing myself forever. But instead of collapsing, I chose to create,” Ségur said.

“Making this film became my way out. In many ways, it saved me. It gave me a language to express what I couldn’t explain — a way to survive something that felt senseless.”

Self-produced, the film resists easy narrative formulas. It opts instead for restraint, ambiguity and raw emotional resonance.

“As a director, I’ve always been drawn to emotional truth. I believe in cinema that resonates, not only visually but also deeply, humanly.”

Clorette Jacinthe and Edmond Erthon portray Abi and Ze, bringing to life a powerful love story at the heart of the short film Abize. Photo by Luc Ségur for The Haitian Times, June 15, 2025.

AbiZe: A fracture at the center

The title itself carries a double edge. The word ‘BiZe’ is a fusion of both the main characters’ names. In Haitian Creole, “AbiZe” is a word meaning “to betray or abuse someone’s trust.” That layered meaning runs through the story, where intimacy, silence, and betrayal intersect.

The film follows Ze, a young man disillusioned with love, persuaded by a friend to try again with Abi, a colleague. As their bond deepens, Abi completely captivates Ze, turning him into a hopeless romantic. What begins as tender renewal unravels into a relationship strained by an invisible crack—a symbolic fracture that grows until love itself collapses.

Clorette Jacinthe, actress and co-founder of the Brigade d’Intervention Théâtrale d’Haïti (BIT-Haïti), plays Abi alongside Edmond Erthon, known for “Kidnapping Inc.” and the Festival Quatre Chemins, who portrays Ze. Together, they bring to life this love story as fragile as it is intense.

“When Luc told me about the project and gave me the script, I immediately said yes, because I could already see myself in that character,” Jacinthe said. “We worked really hard to get to this point, and I hope the film makes its way and wins some awards.”

“AbiZe is more than a film: it’s a piece of my soul. As a director, I’ve always been drawn to emotional truth. I believe in cinema that resonates, not only visually but also deeply, humanly”

Luc Ségur, Haitian filmmaker

AbiZe is a story that invites the viewers into an immersion into emotional chaos — a sensory journey through grief and its disorientations. Its recognition at TINFF signals both the universality of its themes and the growing visibility of Haitian independent cinema.

“Yes, AbiZe may seem unfinished, mysterious — even misunderstood. But that’s exactly how I lived the story,” Ségur confesses. 

“I never really understood why it ended. I had no answers — only signs, silence and an unsolvable equation. I tried to translate that into a film that doesn’t seek to explain, but to make people feel.”

Luc Ségur, director of the short film AbiZe, taken for Haitian Times on June 15, 2025.

The eye of a sensitive artist

Trained at the  Ciné Institute in Haiti’s southeast coastal city, Jacmel, Ségur has worked across photography, film, and humanitarian documentation. In 2024, he won the World Humanitarian Day photo contest for his ability to capture raw emotion in a single image. His collaborations with the World Food Programme (WFP) have taken him into schools, rural areas and displaced camps, experiences that sharpen his focus on the unspoken struggles of Haitian life.

His credits include work on films such as Kafou and Kidnapping Inc., institutional documentaries, advertising campaigns and music videos like ‘Madanm mwen ansent’  by Roodyman, which has surpassed one million views,  and “Chalè – 2 Chay”, among others. Whether commercial or artistic, his work is bound by a deep sensitivity to human emotion. With AbiZe, that sensitivity turns inward.

“If even one person watches this film and feels a little less alone, then I will have accomplished something meaningful and true,” Ségur said.

 “And perhaps that is the true purpose of cinema: not to explain, but to reveal; not to lead, but to reach out — even if that hand trembles, even if it is fragile. A hand searching for connection in the dark.”

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