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Kinshasha Makambo
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This committed, eyewitness, essentially cinéma-vérité work of documentary reportage follows the unfolding events in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a period in 2016 and 2017 when Joseph Kabila refused to stand down as President, and the people’s hero Étienne Tshisekedi returned at age 85 – trying without success, until his death, to open negotiations with Kabila. In particular, the film traces the daily lives and militant activities of three engagé men: Christian, Ben and Jean-Marie. Dieudo Hamadi films from the heart of the citizens’ movements to which he belongs in the DRC. He captures his friends in earnest political discussions; he runs with them down the street to avoid the bullets and tear gas aimed at them by police; he shares the precious moments of comradely joy and friendly intimacy. Hamadi’s account does not erase the painful difficulties of this (or any) revolutionary struggle: prison, torture, death and the strain placed on family relations are ever-present. At the core of it all is the eternally burning question: is violence, when wielded by an oppressed population, a morally righteous weapon to combat a state government apparatus that is itself violent? © Adrian Martin 21 September 2018 |
