''SistaGod'' is a 2006 Trinidadian
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
, the first in a trilogy by director
Robert Yao Ramesar. The film stars Evelyn Caesar Munroe, who also serves as the narrator of the story. She plays the role of Mari (the Sista God), who undergoes a transition from a girl who cheats death to a harbinger of death itself.
The film is surreal, with a haunting musical score and
Orisha songs sung by female
calypsonian
A calypsonian,Definition of CALYPSO
Carnival
Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival ...
plays an integral part in the film, with the use of traditional characters that are still popular today.
Plot
The film begins during the early 1990s. A white American soldier, serving in the
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
as a
sniper, is washed ashore on Trinidadian soil. He is shell-shocked from the war, with the mindset of a 12-year-old child. He is taken care of by an Afro-Trinidadian nurse, who helps rehabilitate him. Eventually, they fall in love.
Mari, the daughter of the soldier and the nurse, was conceived in a cemetery. Because the girl is dark-skinned, the soldier denies that she is his child, and leaves the mother. The nurse goes insane and is taken to an asylum, where she spends day after day staring at photos of her and the soldier. Mari is taken in by “Nan”, her adopted Hindu grandmother, in St. Joseph, Trinidad. They live near the cemetery where she claims she hears the souls of the dead trying to resurface.
One day, out of curiosity, Mari picks a bunch of poisoned berries from a tree and eats them. She does not die, but her tongue is darkened black. Nan creates an antidote for the poison, using medicinal herbs.
Her mother is eventual