Stateless

Synopsis

1973: Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army, based on anti-black hatred. 2013: the Dominican Republic stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929 - rendering hundreds of thousands stateless, without rights and vulnerable to deportation from the country they call home. This is why human rights lawyer Rosa Iris - a Dominican of Haitian descent - mounts a grassroots campaign to fight for social justice. Both context-specific and disarmingly universal, this nuanced film explores the fraught relationship between two countries sharing the same island, the rhetoric behind the political decision to render people stateless, and the demonisation of those who stand up against it.