Ghosts of Cite Soleil is the striking documentary from director Asger Leth about life in the slums of Haiti around the time of a revolution against the ruling Government in 2004. Cite Soleil is a particularly poor part of Haiti - like the townships in South Africa, it's a place where people are poor, they live in desperate housing projects, life is cheap, and the mob is the law.

For President Aristide, the easiest way to keep Cite Soleil under some sort of rule, is to enlist the support of the Chimeres, gang leaders such as brothers Bily and 2Pac, who will then support him and also keep a form of gang law in these poor districts.

2Pac is a rapper, a singer who dreams of a better life. Bily his brother, feels he is carrying out a form of social good on behalf of the President dictator and Lele, a female French relief worker mediates between the two of them.

When rebels attack the President's forces, the President will flee into exile and once the rebels take over the country with US and UN backing, gangsters such as the Chimeres come under greater scrutiny and are seen as a serious threat to the now ruling power.

Ghosts of Cite Soleil, supported by the evocative music of songwriter Wycleff Jean is a harsh and perceptive reminder of quite how frightening the world is and how in places like Haiti, turmoil and gunshots are daily occurences. It grows on you as a film and by the second half, you'll be admiring the stunning camerawork of Asger Leth and wondering how he managed to get so close to the real-life action taking place in Cite Soleil.

It's a moving and harrowing tale with echoes of City of God and made all the more frightening for knowing that this is the kind of short life that exists for many small-time gangsters living in the world's worst troublespots.