As the "Heart of Darkness", Congo remains to this day a huge space onto which the rest of the world can project certain ideas. With this film, young Congolese directors react to these projections by offering an inside view. Their cameras delve into different microcosms. The film begins with the absurd everyday life of a maternity ward. Many mothers cannot leave the hospital after giving birth because they cannot pay the bill. Right from the start of their new life, these women and their babies are trapped in the clutches of poverty and bureaucracy. A journey through the breathtaking labyrinth of Kinshasa's transformed infrastructure follows. The life of a young female journalist, whose father – a government opponent – was murdered, is portrayed. Grace Ngyke continues the fight for freedom of speech in the changed, but no less complicated, present. The film ends in one of the many haunting mining towns to which Congo owes its immense wealth. A woman and children, who can barely walk, work like Sisyphus and break stones. With Congo in Four Acts, the filmmakers have successfully completed their experiment to win back a space onto which others project ideas and turned it into a screen.
Dorothee Wenner
Production: Suka! Production, Cape Town
Camera: Deschamps Matala, Divita Wa Lusala
Format: DVCam (filmed on Beta SP), color
Running time: 72 min.
Languages: French, English
