Dual citizen

‘Dual citizen’ is a humorous and heartfelt documentary about one father’s reluctant effort to help his daughter reclaim her Haitian citizenship – even if it means confronting a past he thought he left behind. Filmmaker Rachelle Salnave embarks on a deeply personal journey with her father, Édouard Salnave, to test a 2012 amendment to Haiti’s Constitution that restores Haitian nationality rights. But the process is far from simple: Édouard, a proud New York Republican who hasn’t set foot in Haiti in over fifty years, must become Haitian again before his daughter can – forcing him to engage with a country and a government he’s kept at arm’s length since his family’s political exile in the 1960s. What unfolds is an intimate, often humorous exploration of family, identity, and the contradictions of belonging. Blending vérité, personal narration, and experimental touches, ‘Dual citizen’ is both a father–daughter road trip and a meditation on what it means to hold two passports – and two very different ways of seeing the world.