About the Film
In a Catholic boarding school in the aftermath of independence, a group of young Rwandan students from elite families experience the rise of deep tensions between the country’s two main ethnic groups under their teachers’ close supervision.
Our Lady of the Nile depicts a poetic portrait of the daily lives of the students, embroiled in their adolescent, coming-of-age dramas, while also witnessing the political and social pressure of the period.
Despite the early 70s’ quota system limiting the presence of Tutsis in institutional spheres, the young women, destined to be the country’s future generation of leaders, attempt to resist the divisions emerging under the Hutu regime, in spite of the widespread complicity among their entourage.
Neither eye-witnesses nor witchcraft can spare the students’ hillside school home, as the institution's teachers and religious guardians look on indifferently and helplessly while events unfold amid a climate of insane colonial nostalgia. Nothing can prevent the seeds of the Tutsi genocide, which took place twenty years later, from taking root.
Our Lady of the Nile was adapted from the eponymous novel—which received both the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize and the Prix Renaudot in 2012—by acclaimed Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga. Atiq Rahimi’s graceful direction is complemented by beautiful cinematography and a sterling performance from the lead actors.
Djia Mambu
