Democratic Republic of the Congo

Joseph Kumbela was born in 1958 in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). At the age of thirteen, he moved to Paris, where he studied design and worked in the design field, for ten years. When his company went bankrupt, he decided to go to New York to study dance and theatre. He started out in a theater in New York, and then moved to Los Angeles where he studied at the Play House of the Sunset School of Acting. He also had supporting roles in French TV movies. In 1991, he was given a part in Leonce Ngabo’s Gito, l’ingrat (Gito the Ungrateful) and also took part in directing. He was awarded a prize for best male lead role at FESPACO in 1993. He then went to Switzerland and began to write films. His screenwriting credits include Génisse, princesse au pays des mille collines and Bagamoyo: ici meurt mon coeur.

Filmography

Entre-deux (1992)
Perle noire (1994)
Post Parcel / Colis Postal (1996)
Taxcarte (1996)
The Stranger from Africa / L’Étranger Venu d’Afrique (1998)