‘The Price of Sugar’ tells of bitter poverty

It’s doubtful that Mary Poppins would have extolled the virtues of sugar as a medicine chaser if she had known about the horrific plight of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic.

According to “The Price of Sugar,” a riveting new documentary from director Bill Haney, the migrant laborers there who cut down sugar cane are pressed into virtual slavery. Having been lured across the border with the promise of a better life, the Haitians soon find themselves working 12-hour days, crammed into filthy barracks and forced to drink parasite-infested water.

Until the arrival of Father Christopher Hartley in the Dominican town of Los Llanos a few years ago, the Haitian laborers had no advocate and no recourse. When the charismatic, controversial priest began to crusade on their behalf, his campaign sparked a dramatic struggle that is at the heart of Haney’s film.

On one side sits Father Hartley and the Haitian workers. On the other are the wealthy plantation owners, specifically the Vicini sugar barons (who decline to appear on camera). Having pegged Father Hartley a troublemaker, the Vicinis try to drive him away, apparently bribing local Dominicans to protest his “Haitianization” of their land -- an allegation both hypocritical and untrue, since the plantation owners were behind the human trafficking in the first place.

To call this a struggle between good and evil may seem reductive, but such is the portrait of Father Hartley that emerges. Haney doesn’t strive for balance, and he doesn’t have to; the images speak for themselves. And because they refuse to be shown on camera, the Vicinis appear more mysterious, more nefarious.

Still, as compelling as “The Price of Sugar” is, it also represents a squandered opportunity. A stronger connection could have been made between the film’s subject and our own responsibility as consumers.

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“The Price of Sugar.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. In selected theaters.