Republic of the Congo / 2020 / 80mins / Documentary / Lingala and French

The film develops reflection on history, politics, cinema, image and time... The images were filmed in Kinshasa, Ouagadougou, and Uccle in Brussels. «Mweze» as I like to call it is not an autobiography, but a self-portrait. Not a journey in time and space, according to the vagaries of a life, but the state of a man as we say the state of things here and now. Here, it is Belgium, in the district of UCCLE or «Mweze» came to live with family. Now, it’s shooting time: a few days between the beginning of autumn and
the end of winter. A portrait, therefore, as conceived by«Mweze», from collages and sound surimpressions. A portrait that, from the credits, opens on what we take for a coquettishness. Despite appearances, “Mweze” as a great painter is addressed less to our brains than to our hearts. He is not a philosopher but a filmmaker. Who is he again? “Kin Kiesse or the sweet and bitter joys of Kinshasa la belle”. “Life is beautiful”, “Changa Changa”, “General Tombeur”, “The King, the cow and the banana tree”. “Pieces d’identités”, “The Governor’s new clothes”. Finally “Mweze”. And who is he again? A lover of rumba. Of this dance and music that looks like us

David-Pierre Fila

Born in Congo-Brazzaville, fashion photographer and correspondent for Agence Gamma in Central Africa. From the 1980s onwards, he was active in film production as a cinematographer, production manager, scriptwriter and director. In 1994, he set up his own production company, Les Films Bantu, in Congo Brazzaville. Several of his films deal with environmental issues and sustainable development, notably "Le dernier des Babingas" (1991), a documentary selected at the Cannes Film Festival and awarded at several festivals, and "L'eau, la terre, la forêt" (2004). He also develops his themes in photography, as with "Les derniers forestiers" exhibited at the Biennale des Rencontres africaines de la photographie in Bamako (2005). For this Biennale, he also initiated the theme "Frontiers" (2009). Another part of his work is dedicated to the culture of the Congo: "Tala Tala" (1992), "Zao" (2009), "Sur les chemins de la Rumba" (2015), the latter of which toured the world of festivals and contributed to the inclusion of Congolese rumba in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, "Le sapeur" (2019) documentary associated with his photo exhibition "Les sapeurs" on a very popular fashion, "Fosso" (2021) documentary on photographer Samuel Fosso presented at the retrospective devoted to him at the Maison Européenne de la
Photographie in Paris. Learn More