Democratic Republic of the Congo and France / 2014 / 92mins / Documentary / French and Lingala

National Diploma follows a group of young Congolese high school students who are about to sit the exam for their National Diploma, in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are filmed while they prepare for the exam, from the benches of the school that they are regularly ejected from because they haven’t paid the “teachers’ fees” to the “maquis,” where they gather to revise and the chaotic streets of the city where they spend their time “looking for a living.”

Dieudo Hamadi

Dieudo Hamadi was born in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo in February 1984 and studied bio-medicine from 2005 to 2008. Since 2002, he has completed several documentary film workshops and video editing courses and has worked as an editor, producer, and assistant director, for Suka! Productions. He directed Congo in Four Acts - Ladies in Waiting (Dames en attente - 2009) and Congo in Four Acts - Zero Tolerance (Tolérance zéro - 2009). In 2014, with National Diploma (Examen d’Etat), he follows high school students who are unable to pass their final exams because they cannot pay school fees unfairly inflicted upon them. Dieudo Hamadi received the Cinéma du réel Grand prize in 2017 for Mama Colonel. Learn More