Congo in Four Acts

Directed by Dieudo Hamadi, Divita wa Lusala & Kiripi Katembo Siku
Produced by Djo Tunda wa Munga & Steven Markovitz
69min
South Africa
2010



 


Synopsis

A quartet of powerful, hard-hitting short films that lay bare the disturbing reality of everyday life in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ladies in Waiting

Director: Divita wa Lusala & Dieudo Hamadi  
In a run-down maternity hospital, a ward of women who have recently had their babies wait to be allowed to leave. The problem? They cannot pay the hospital fees. A long-suffering manager must negotiate collateral with them so they will return and pay in full: a celebration dress, a pair of earrings, a suitcase. The film eloquently exposes both the squalid hospital system and the endemic poverty of Congo without, thankfully, pointing fingers, leaving that instead to the viewer.

Symphony Kinshasa
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku
Take a hard-hitting tour through Congo's capital city and discover the consequences of graft, neglect and poverty, as Siku's film reveals Kinshasa'a imploding infrastructure. Malaria is rife, fresh water is as rare as flood water is common, electricity cables lie bare and live in the street, garbage is everywhere and as a priest notes "living in the capital is like living in a village. The services are the same, non-existent." It's not pretty but it's revelatory.

Zero Tolerance
Director: Dieudo Hamadi  
Rape as a weapon of war has had much press, most notably in the recent Congo wars. Less discussed is the legacy it has left behind; a desensitised acceptance of the abuse of women at the hands of criminals, opportunists and most worryingly, ordinary men. Hamadi's short documentary film aims to get right to heart of the matter by following the Head of the Sexual Violence Unit, in Bukavu, Eastern DRC, she arrests two teenage brothers who rape a women returning from the shops and a man who rapes a women because he thinks she is a witch. Hamadi's focus is on an Eastern DRC town where political correctness holds no sway, and in so doing he attempts to show both the depth of the problem and the attempts by authorities to reset the national moral code. The film's unexpected triumph is its honesty -- both in the depiction of poverty and the community's burgeoning anger at the endemic abuse.

After the Mine
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku
Kipushi is a mining town, one of thousands keeping Congo's elite in extreme wealth. But for those who live in the shadow of its toxic fallout, it is a very different life, one where tainted water and contaminated soil are realities. Siku's film tells the very personal stories of those trapped in such a deadly environment.

Shorts

Ladies in Waiting
Director: Divita wa Lusala & Dieudo Hamadi  

Symphony Kinshasa
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku

Zero Tolerance
Director: Dieudo Hamadi  

After the Mine
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku

Festivals

World premiere – Berlinale 2010

Officially selected for IDFA – International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam, 2010

Officially selected for Hot Docs – 2010

Officially selected  for African Film Festival of Milan 2010

Officially selected for Africa in Motion Film Festival 2010
International Festival Signes de Nuit, France, 2010

Hot Docs, Canada, 2010

Rwanda Film Festival, 2010
Open Doek Film Festival, Belgium, 2010

DOK.FEST, Germany, 2010 
Norweigan Short Film Festival, Norway, 2010


Zanzibar International Film Festival, 2010

Bala Bala Cine, Democartic Republic of Congo, 2010

Durban International Film Festival, South Africa, 2010

Encounters Documnetary Festival, South Africa, 2010


Fair – Forum for African Investivitive Reporters, 
Zimbabwe International Film Festival, 2010

My World Images Festival, Denmark, 2010


FIFAI, Reunion Island, 2010
DocLisboa , Portugal, 2010 


Kenya International Film Festival, 2010

Carthage Film Festival, Tunisia, 2010


Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, Uganda, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, Africa in Motion Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2010

Ethiopian International Film Festival, 2010


Senegal Festival du Film de Dakar, 2010


The Village Doc Festival Milan, Italy, 2010


Watch Docs, Poland, 2010


Benin Quintessance  2011


Doc Point, Helsinki, Finland, 2011


FIPA (sub fesival of Cannes) Biarritz, France  2011
Black Movie Film Festival, Geneva, Switzerland, 2011


FESPACO, Burkina Faso, 2011(26 FEB -5 MAR ‘11)
Bradford International Film Festival, UK, 2011 


Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, 2011


Ljubjana Documentary Film Festival, Slovenia, 2011

Planete Doc Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland, 2011

Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa, Tangers, 2011 


Dockanema Documenatry Film Festival, Maputo, Mozambique, 2011


Tri Continents Film Festival, 2011


One World Kyrgyzstan International Film Festival, 2011


Namur International Festival of Francophone, Belgium, 2011


Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival, Germany, 
Ânûû- rû Âboro Film Festival, New Caledonia, South Pacific, 2011 Â) 
International Short Film Festival Winterthur, Switzerland, 2011


Women of the Sun Unite Film Festival, South Africa, 2011 
Manya Human Rights International Film Festival, Uganda, 2011


The African Movie Festival of Cordoba – FCAT, Spain, 2011
Africa Hoje Film Festival, Brazil, 2012

Awards

Jury Award - Vienna International Human World Film Festival 2010

The Pierre And Yolande Perrault Grant at Cinema Du Reel (“Ladies In Waiting”)

Prize Winner - Fica, Ivory Coast 2010

Best Short Documentary - Africa Movie Academy Awards 2011 (“After The Mine”)

The Grand Prix - One World Kyrgyzstan International Film Festival 2011

 

Currently not for distribution in South Africa