Lucile Desamory

88 min. French, Dutch, Lingala, German, English.

Hilde drives through a forest with her aunt’s ashes on the passenger seat, about to have an accident. She is a costume designer working for a reality TV show about Belgian carnival. The show is the brainchild of three Congolese women who sent Hawaly, a Burundian show-runner, to Belgium for the preparations. The two women spend weeks traveling around Belgium by car. Hilde seems to have her life under control, yet little by little, the events draw her into a cosmos populated by the false spirits and ghosts of Western Europe while the very real ghost of her aunt accompanies her. Hawaly observes Hilde’s encounters with the supernatural and reports them to her colleagues in Kinshasa. Hardened to the pressures of the audience, the three savvy businesswomen are betting on the future of their TV station and on the revolutionary concept of their show, which would allow them to reposition themselves in the fast-changing market of horror and sensationalism.

Production Lucile Desamory. Production companies Lucile Desamory (Berlin, Germany), O2 Studios (Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo), Ni Vu Ni Connu Productions (Luxemburg, Luxembourg). Directed by Lucile Desamory, Glodie Mubikay, Gustave Fundi. Screenplay Damien Desamory. Cinematography Artur Castro Freire, Erick Kayembe. Editing Sophie Watzlawick. Music Nicholas Bussmann. Sound design Nicholas Bussmann. Sound Arnaud Liesse, Léo Guinet, Caleb Kayeye. Production design Lucile Desamory, Glodie Mubikay, Gustave Fundi. Costumes Lucile Desamory, Glodie Mubikay, Gustave Fundi. Co-producers Glodie Mubikay, Antoine Prüm. With Hawaly Ndayisenga (Hawaly), Lucile Desamory (Hilde), Anton Sifu Kabala (Evelyne), Ornella Mubeka (Niclèche), Belord Mulopo (Journaliste), Rachel Vungbo (Viviane), Clémence Mathieu (La directrice), Boris Lehman (Premier homme), Noel Godin (Deuxième homme), Frédérique Franke (Hellseherin), Frédérique Franke (Mieke), Laura Pinard (Mieke), Ruth Lehmann (Mieke), Lionel Perrinjaquet (Mieke), Margot Ghysels (Voice), Johan Van der Maat (Martin), Lucile Desamory (Martin), Lionel Perrinjaquet (Martin), Damien Desamory (Voice), Felisa Cereceda (Eva), Ruth Lehmann (Eva), Johan Van der Maat (Eva), Arnaud Liesse (Eva), Lena Stein (Voice), Marie-Paule Mailleux (Das Gespenst).

Lucile Desamory, born in 1977 in Brussels, Belgium, lives and works in Berlin. She is interested in the frontiers of perception, in the “too much,” the esoteric, the falsified – in the spurned narratives. She combines film, painting, drawing, embroidery, collage, and her voice into larger webs such as video installations, films, or performances. Many projects are collaborations. Her films and art works have been shown internationally.

Glodie Mubikay was born in 1992 in Kinshasa, Congo. His goal as a producer is to make the Congolese culture speak. He focuses on themes of daily life in relation with Congolese traditional rites. In 2009, he joined the summer university of cinema in Lubumbashi. In 2011, he took part in the making of the film Maquis. From then on, he has been working as an actor, director, screenwriter and producer. In 2012, he created Osimbi Oziki Studios with Gustave Fundi and Ray Tambwe, a research and production laboratory in audiovisual and performing arts. They produce fictions, documentaries, and experimental videos. He is currently working on his next documentary.

Gustave Fundi, born in 1988 in Lubumbashi, Congo, works as director, producer, actor, and scriptwriter. His main goal is to make the world discover ancestral and current Congolese culture. He creates an extravagant universe inspired by Congolese history, myths and legends, oscillating between horror, science fiction and fantasy. He directed his first short film Mampocha in 2010. From 2011 on, he has taken part in several workshops for young filmmakers. Together with Glodie Mubikay and Ray Tambwe he cofounded Osimbi Oziki Studios in 2012. Together, they produce fictions, documentary, and experimental films.

Films

Lucile Desamory: 2006: Countdown to Nothing (10 min.). 2007: Haut les Coeurs (15 min.). 2010: Dark Matter (13 min.). 2011: Foules (dans l’atelier de Christophe Berhault) (16 min.). 2013: ABRACADABRA (78 min.). 2020: Télé Réalité. 2019: Vu de l'extérieur (video installation, 25 min.).

Glodie Mubikay: 2015: Performance Robot de la poste (5 min.). 2020: Télé Réalité.

Gustave Fundi: 2011: Mampocha (16 min.), Taxi-Rouge (11 min.), Maquis. 2012: Géographiste, Jeux (8 min.), La Terreur de Zuba (46 min.). 2013: Sweet et Sexy (22 min.), Ndoto (21 min.), N’Tsiku (23 min.). 2014: Mikoshi (22 min.), Jaribu (22 min.), Ramazani (20 min.). 2015: Munya (19 min.), Ubatizo (20 min.), Performance du Robot de la Poste (5 min.). 2016: Requiem de la vie (19 min.), Ah…! (18 min.). 2017: Micro Billard (10 min.). 2018: Rumeur (4 min.), MaSoeur (3 min.), Calomnie (3 min.), Papa (4 min.), Ubatizo, la genèse du mal (4 min.). 2019: Kampirimposhi (22 min.), Nuits d’Enfer (15 min.), L’art dans l’âme (11 min.). 2020: Télé Réalité.