Director

Hadrien La Vapeur, Corto Vaclav

France | 2019 | 70 min | Lari, French with subtitles in English and Arabic

• Producer François-Pierre Clavel, Hadrien La Vapeur, Corto Vaclav, Alexandre Perrier
• Production Company Kidam, Expédition Invisible
• Screenplay
• Cinematography Hadrien La Vapeur
• Editing Hadrien La Vapeur, Corto Vaclav
• Sound Corto Vaclav, Clément Chauvelle
• Cast Medard
• Contacts

  Pyramide International

  sales@pyramidefilms.com

About the Film

In a society dominated by ancestral beliefs, we encounter the spiritual world of the Apostle Medard, a pastor and traditional healer, who is also the local doctor freeing patients from evil spells and demonic possession. A charismatic figure, he is both worshipped and feared due to his supernatural ability to pass between the world of people and the world of spirits. After one intervention, two children are found dead in their bed. The mystical healer is put on trial for the death of the boys, publicly accused by their father.

As a member of the Ngunza brotherhood, Apostle Medard also has a mission to defend the region’s protective spirits under the threat of a Chinese conglomerate’s mining projects. This mission becomes increasingly urgent when his spiritual mentor dies as the sirens—guarantors of the local spirits—bewail a whole new colonial invasion.

Filmed in Brazzaville on the banks of the Congo River, this documentary challenges the viewer and questions our relationship to the rational. The filmmakers’ closeness to their subjects shows their fascination and interest for the topic, and the film intelligently depicts a very real emotional world light years from the fantasy suggested in the title.

Kongo is the kind of documentary that does not need a voice-over; all the scenes are deeply lived and experienced.

The encounter between Hadrien La Vapeur’s experimental camera work and Corto Vaclav’s anthropological vision enhances the aesthetics of the cinematography, which expresses the nuances between the visible and the invisible.

Djia Mambu