- Congo
BENDA BILILI!
Synopsis
Ricky has a dream: Staff Benda Bilili should become the best band in Kinshasa. The musicians are paraplegic, get around the city on home-made tricycles and rehearse at night on the grounds of the zoo. Roger, a street child, is determined to join them. Between police, arson and hunger, the men have to stick together and draw on their music – rumba, reggae, funk played on improvised instruments – the strength to carry on. “Benda Bilili!” (2010) by Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye follows the group from Congo over six years, from 2004 to 2010: from the street, through their first recordings, to a tour of Europe. The title means roughly “look beyond appearances” in Lingala.
The two French film-makers had first come to Kinshasa as music producers; their closeness to the musicians shapes the film more than any narrative device. “Benda Bilili!” opened the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes in 2010, with the band playing at the opening ceremony. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2010.
Festival
Shown at the 2010 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
