Kinshasa Symphony

This is an excellent film until the last couple of minutes, but then something goes awry. Throughout, the focus has been on the orchestra's struggle to prepare Beethoven's Ninth for a public performance. When the climactic concert finally occurs at the end of the film, we see the group perform a couple of bars of the final movement of Beethoven's work, but we mainly see them give a stirring rendition of a large chunk of Carl Orff's "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi." The unexplained switcheroo left this viewer feeling dissatisfied. But in judging this movie, one must forgive any lapses of the writer, director, and editor and instead honor the heroism of the musicians and their intrepid director, Armand Diangienda. Maestro Diangienda is eagerly awaited at the podia of orchestras in Europe and North America!

What a phenomenal documentary! It interweaves the personal lives of the people in the orchestra in this city in the Congo with their rehearsing to play Beethoven's 9th Symphony. You learn about the people, the problems the country has been having, interspersed with their total dedication to playing great classical music. The editing is just fantastic.The conductor is such a dignified man, great presence. I really liked that the footage of the actual performance shows only a little of Beethoven, but then surprises us with a nice excerpt of another piece, which they also play very well. Helped me my French too.

This is a great film, well worth watching. The question worth asking is why are we here and what do we mean? Having struggled to support artistic endeavors in my own community, I was oddly encouraged by the heroic struggle of these people. Watching them build their own instruments, fight for the lives of their children and practice was a profound lesson in what it is to be human. This would be a great film for schools, group discussions and any art film series. We waste so much. We could be so much better.

This film takes us into the complex lives of these people, some of whom live in horrific conditions. We say art and music matter, but these people pay it's full cost in a world where many of them are granted little respect.

In the end the music isn't even the point. For years my wife has insisted the practice and preparation is the real art. Its the struggle to reclaim something from necessity. I learned things about the cost of eggs in Africa, transit and renting a place to live that I would never have even considering needing to know about.

This is a story I consider myself lucky to know. I saw this at our local film society and everyone there got a lot out of it.