Kinshasa Makambo

“Stay home. – But mother, we’re going to liberate the country! – Lumumba didn’t succeed, why would you?” The quarrel that opens Kinshasa Makambo speaks volumes about Dieudo Hamadi’s humble and direct approach: no need to explain the context that drove Congolese youth in the 2010s (in 2011 and 2015, and during the filming in late 2016 and early 2017) to take to the streets despite the violent repression, to demand the end of Joseph Kabila’s never-ending presidency. Christian, an activist in the opposition, Jean-Marie, recently tortured in prison, and Ben, now back from forced exile, meet up on several occasions in dangerous demonstrations and clandestine meetings, where they ask universal questions on what form the struggle for democracy should take: should they join forces with existing parties? Is the octogenarian leader of the opposition, Étienne Tshisekedi, compromising himself by negotiating? Is non-violence on the cards when confronting a violent regime? Already the maker of a striking portrait of youth (National Diploma, Cinéma du réel, 2014), Hamadi has paid a fraternal tribute to a generation that is the driving force behind the rebellion and whose parents – peripheral characters who bear the weight of charismatic but crippling ancestors – seem concerned only by their individual survival. (Charlotte Garson)