Félicité

Hats off to the touchingly lively performance here from Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu in the title role. She makes her living singing in a Kinshasa bar and life's fine until her teenage son finds himself in need of medical attention after a motor cycle accident. As you can imagine, that's all expensive stuff and suddenly her life is thrown into turmoil as she has to reprioritise quickly. She's a strong and confident woman, but when she encounters "Tabu" (Papa Mpaka) her whole raison d'être is challenged and she begins to realise that perhaps what she had before was but a shell of what she could have now - if only she can save her son! There are two strong and characterful performances holding this together and that, coupled with some busy and intense photography, really does imbue us with a sense of the vibrancy of her life, but also of it's frailty. For all her strengths, she is most vulnerable where any parent might be - when it comes to her child. The dynamic between the two doesn't play out quite as you might expect, and with the addition of plenty of local music and dance to deliver extra authenticity to this story, it comes across as a perfectly plausible tale of a mother's love. At times, "Félicité" has an affecting documentary look to it as auteur Alain Gomis takes his time to let the actors establish and build their personas in an engaging and watchable fashion.

This movie appears to be quite a melting pot and rating it proved to be quite difficult for me. We have indeed, mixed in one movie:

• a modern drama in Africa, that enables to show how life is, and what kind of struggles you meet in your daily life there,
• the portrait of a strong woman, proud but cold, that can be perceived as missing some Africa vibe,
• a poem with a wonderful, very touching character, Tabu, which combines kindness, poetry, joie de vivre and loneliness, alcool and women excess. He shows a different man from the "African" stereotype as much as Felicity differs from the standard woman, in a reverse of masculine and feminine.
• and finally some art scenes, that often come out of nowhere.

On the whole, Félicité could have been shorter without loosing impact. I'll go with a 7, mainly for the story of Félicité and Tabu. Should have been the movie focus in my opinion, with Congo neighborhood, songs, Félicité's son and of course the fridge as side characters.

Seen at the Berlinale 2017, and part of the official Competition for the Golden Bear. Better still, director Alain Gomis won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, awarded by the Berlinale 2017 International Jury. I assume that lead performer Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu) has also something to do with delivering such a compelling movie, despite its minor imperfections (minimal budget? non-pro actors?), and losing most of its steam after the hunt for money to pay the hospital bills.

Apart from personal dramatic developments, I have all reasons to assume we get a realistic portrait of contemporary Congo. What we see in hospitals, on the streets and in shops looks like what we can expect, still informative to have it spelled out on screen. Three main protagonists carry the story very well, though the son does not talk much (with reason). I propose to count Félicité's fridge as fourth protagonist, by showing odd behavior and bringing people together who would not meet otherwise, thereby several times causing some welcome relief from the depressing core story.

It is remarkable that Tabu does not expect sexual favors in return, or at least it is not shown. Yet, Tabu has a special role in addition to getting Félicité's son out of the hospital, and he does that by interacting with the son and making him feel alive and useful again, despite the crutches he must live with for the rest of his life. It is understandable that the son is in a severely low mood after his release from hospital, and it was not easy to get him out of it.

All in all, Félicité's tour in and around the city to raise money for her son's operation, is depressing but very nice as a touristic tour around the city, also serving as social commentary on its inhabitants. A personal note: I was distracted at first because of everyone calling each other Mama and Papa. It took some time to get used to it. It seems to be the standard shorthand forms for Mr and Mrs in Congo (or maybe a less formal form, like Heer and Vrouw as we remember from the dialect in our youth, a side remark that can be understood by native Dutch speakers only). I had no problems at all to sustain the 2 hours running time, as something interesting happens all the time, especially the money-raising tour that covers a considerable and important part of it.

Set in Kinshasa, DR of the Congo, where a woman sings in a bar to support herself and her son. What is noteworthy is what seems to be the authentic poverty of the area and how people cope with it. Also noteworthy is the anger from having to fight for the basics of life that hopeless poverty engenders. Also noteworthy was how sexually manipulated females (to various degrees not uncommon throughout the world) continually are as they struggle to exist.

This film is a classic film about life in the cultural setting of the Congo. I was concerned this would be an emotionally heavy movie for no reason but it turned out to be an intriguing and at times even gripping film about life for what could have easily been one of us, a neighbor, or family member. You feel a connection to the characters and an affection for their imperfect perfections in just being people. What makes this a classic versus just a good film was the quality of the acting. In classic films where body language and relationship development are centered and words are reserved to emphasize the moment this film ensures you are watching every move of the characters as much as listening for what is said next. I'd recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the art of cinema.