France, Rawanda / 2023 / 108mins / Documentary / English

They were children at the time of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda (1994). They are now in their thirties and struggling with childhood memories of desolation and violence. To carry the weight of the past and think of a future we must talk freely. Kumva is about the need to build one’s own memory in order to give flesh to the dead and to build a bridge between the past and the present.The 1994 genocide in Rwanda has traumatised generations. The children of the time lack memories, their parents are struggling to speak about it to this day. In this film they break the silence.

Sarah Mallégol

Sarah Mallégol, born in 1983, is a French filmmaker who grew up partly in Rwanda before the 1994 genocide. She studied cinema and transitioned into documentary filmmaking after earlier roles in programming and arts projects for cultural institutions like the Cinémathèque de Tanger and Les Ateliers Médicis. Her filmmaking explores themes of memory, trauma, and intergenerational dialogue, as seen in her work Kumva – Which Comes from Silence, a documentary focusing on Rwandan genocide survivors. Learn More