Tchala, l'argent des rêves
Michèle Lemoine
2003 - 52 min - DV Cam - Couleur - France

Borlette, a very popular lottery in Haiti, is based on dreams. There is no such thing as chance, because the winning results of the drawing come from their dreams, and dreams are messages sent from the spirit world. 80% of all Haitians play on a daily basis. The stakes know no limits : the sky’s the limit and there’s no betting minimum.
Depending on the drawing, you can win fifty times, twenty times the amount you’ve placed. It’s a poor man’s casino : whatever the amount that is won, borlette cookies are required to settle with everyone no later than the following morning. Borlette is the mad hope of the poor, who are staunch and daily players and who have nothing to lose but their dreams. With their backs against a wall of poverty, they play to survive and entrust their lives to luck. Borlette is their cure-all. And their cancer.