Félicité

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.

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.

The strong lead actors, the lively Congolese music in the small, smoky clubs, and the bizarre dream sequences worked together to enhance this dark portrayal of a feisty woman who strives to live by her own means. What would any of us not do to care for a child in desperate need, whether mother, father, family, or friend? I could feel Felicite's panic and determination as she tried to provide for her son's care. I went a little crazy right along with her. Been to Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, but not DRC yet. Still the street scenes, the daily life felt familiar and true.

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.

+ very realistic view on Kinshasa today. I've been there a year ago and this film took me right back to the bumpy, colorful streets. the human part of the film was very real and touching. one feels like being there with them.

+ very good music. especially the Congolese songs!

• pity of the blue, arty images woven throughout the main story. for me they don't add any value, on the contrary, they make the movie 30min too long.

= overall: very good acting, real and interesting view on black Africa: it shows that third world societies are just as valuable as the ones in the western world. they look different and maybe scary to some, but we should learn from there way of life, instead of imposing our view on them.

we have what they lack (good healthcare, good infrastructure, etc) but they have what we lack: social cohesion, time and most of all: freedom!