Examen d’état

Examen d’Etat follows a group of young Congolese high school students who are about to sit the exam for their National Diploma, the equivalent of the French baccalaureate, in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. Dieudo Hamadi’s camera films them as they prepare for their exam, from the benches of the school that they are regularly ejected from because they haven’t paid the “teachers’ fees” to the “maquis” (a communal house) where they gather to revise and the chaotic streets of the city where theyt spend their time “looking for a living”.