This Is Congo (15.)
Directed by Daniel McCabe.
Starring Colonel ‘Kasongo’, Mama Romance, Colonel Mamadou Ndala and Hakiza Nyantaba. 91 mins
The title makes a bold claim but the film is equal to it: give it ninety minutes of your time and it'll give you a whole country. The Congo, Democratic Republic of, once know to us as Zaire, is three times the size of Texas and rich in minerals. Parts of it are also quite beautiful. It has been engulfed in constant warfare for twenty years and everybody lives in poverty, apart from the corrupt officials who squirrel away the immense wealth the natural resources provide.
The film has many merits, but novelty is not one of them; there is nothing new to see here. It's the same old African story, poverty and corruption, poverty and corruption, and from what we see here a never-ending one. The film focuses on Goma, a city near the Rwanda and Uganda border and the battle between the government and the M23 rebel group to control it. McCabe focuses on four stories: a whistleblowing member of the army; a young charismatic Colonel who has been charged with defending Goma; a woman who hunts for minerals and deals them over the border and a tailor who keeps working even though he is constantly being displace by the conflict.
In his first film McCabe has gone out there and come back with lots of startling footage and revealing interviews. But the film isn't just a document of present misery, the historical background is thoroughly explored. These films usually have some agenda to provoke and stir, but this one simply informs. In among the horror it retains a level of detachment but you do notice though that when it gets into the war sequences there is a quickening of the tempo and on the soundtrack music rises to match the intensity. Of the four main figures, the tailor is the one who gets the least screen time.
Directed by Daniel McCabe.
Starring Colonel ‘Kasongo’, Mama Romance, Colonel Mamadou Ndala and Hakiza Nyantaba. 91 mins
The title makes a bold claim but the film is equal to it: give it ninety minutes of your time and it'll give you a whole country. The Congo, Democratic Republic of, once know to us as Zaire, is three times the size of Texas and rich in minerals. Parts of it are also quite beautiful. It has been engulfed in constant warfare for twenty years and everybody lives in poverty, apart from the corrupt officials who squirrel away the immense wealth the natural resources provide.
The film has many merits, but novelty is not one of them; there is nothing new to see here. It's the same old African story, poverty and corruption, poverty and corruption, and from what we see here a never-ending one. The film focuses on Goma, a city near the Rwanda and Uganda border and the battle between the government and the M23 rebel group to control it. McCabe focuses on four stories: a whistleblowing member of the army; a young charismatic Colonel who has been charged with defending Goma; a woman who hunts for minerals and deals them over the border and a tailor who keeps working even though he is constantly being displace by the conflict.
In his first film McCabe has gone out there and come back with lots of startling footage and revealing interviews. But the film isn't just a document of present misery, the historical background is thoroughly explored. These films usually have some agenda to provoke and stir, but this one simply informs. In among the horror it retains a level of detachment but you do notice though that when it gets into the war sequences there is a quickening of the tempo and on the soundtrack music rises to match the intensity. Of the four main figures, the tailor is the one who gets the least screen time.
