Kwa heri Mandima

Robert-Jan Lacombe grew up in a small village in Zaire with his European parents and it was pretty much all he knew until, aged 10, his family packed up, said goodbye and flew out for the last time. Starting with some static photographs of this final farewell and pivotal moment in his life, Lacombe talks you the viewer through your thoughts and feelings at that time.

The title translates as "Goodbye Mandima" which is the name of the village and this very personal documentary could easily have been far too personal to really work. I don't mean specifically for this film, but generally when small (when viewed from outside) events are the subject of a film it can be difficult to get the viewer to relate or understand why the film is made if it is such a personal, specific thing. That is the potential here because, although significant to Robert, having a big change in your life as a child is not really headline news so much as just something meaning to you and your family. To overcome this the film is narrated about the viewer – Lacombe doesn't talk about "I" but rather "you" even though he narrates his own story. It is a very good device and it draws the viewer in because rather than describing the past, he talks about the photographs as if they were occurring now, so we have things he later experienced talked about as future tense questions and thoughts.

I say "photographs" because almost the entire film consists of narration over photographs, specifically one wide shot of the farewell gathering. The camera moves in and around this shot adding to the sense of drawing the viewer in and, as with the use of tense and perspective, it is very effective at helping the viewer connect and understand such a moment. As a documentary the specific moment may not have much significance outside of the Lacombe family, however the manner of delivery of the film overcomes this to produce a cleverly constructed film which connects to the viewer and encourages thought and feeling even though you are on the outside of such a very individual moment.