This is Congo Directed by Daniel McCabe
- Roberto Matteucci
- May 21, 2018
- 5 min read
Updated: May 9, 2019
This is Congo
Directed by Daniel McCabe
Year: 2017
Country: USA, Congo
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
"It seems that God has forgotten us."
The Congo has a young population, 63.2% have between zero and 24 years. (1)
The prosperity and the future of a nation should be derived by its young people; many countries - even for nefarious demographic policies - have lost this possibility for so many years.
Immigration policies without control are used to compensate for this gap.
The Congo, despite this youthful vitality, has a disastrous economic structure. It has vast and abundant natural resources but the gross domestic product per capita is US $ 800 (estimate of 2017), at 227th place in the world. (2)
The country is raped by a meticulous corruption, by a political precariousness and by so many consequent bloody and useless conflicts.
Like many African nations, the main trading partner is China. The Chinese power has tied many countries, controlling them closely with a low-profile policy. Therefore, of the numerous raw materials such as diamonds, copper, gold, cobalt, wood, oil, coffee, 35.3% of the value is destined for China. They pay for food, machinery, transport vehicles, fuels, representing 20.2% of the import. (3)
The Congo had been since 1908 a Belgian colony, under the direct ownership of King Baudouin of Belgium.
Independence happened in 1960 and although the past sixty years, the structure and political maturity have even had a decline.
In 1965 Colonel Joseph Mobutu proclaimed himself president. He remains in charge with violent determination systems for thirty-two years.
Followed by the fall of Mobutu, interference by the confined Rwanda and Uganda, the assassination of President Kabila, the useless peace conferences and the consequent civil insurrection in the eastern Congo lead by the armed group M23, supported by the two usual adversaries: Rwanda and Uganda.
But the misfortunes don't have an end. President Joseph Kabila continues to want to hold power, although his term of office expired in 2016, disregarding the weakening of the country. New presidential elections are scheduled for 2018 but nothing is certain. Manifestations continue in Kinshasa with violent repression
The brief and limited presentation explains The Democratic Republic of Congo, with its extreme difference: a paradise of beauty and wealth against a hell of bad politics and outrageous external interventions.
"Growing in Congo because of God's will mean growing in paradise", says a character from the beautiful documentary This is Congo by director Daniel McCabe, presented at the 74th Venice Film Festival.
The director talks about a duality: "Congo is this incredibly special place, full of contrasts: Beauty and horror, hope and despair. The more I began to learn about it, the more I realized how unique Congo was in both its problems and its qualities." (4)
Daniel McCabe begins the film showing the suggestive Congolese country, a woman sings, soldiers walking in the fields. Joining the various elements he discovers a terrible war. Refugees flee to safe places, escape on the road with the whole family and the few transportable objects, piglets, water, bicycles. They are scared but also colourful. While they are walking on one side of the road, the other is occupied by a line of soldiers, a tank fires. Close to the fugitives begins a battle, unfeeling for civilians.
It's a fratricidal war, the regular soldiers are fighting against the M23 rebels. The image is categorical: the frame is divided in two by the road, at the bottom, there is the camera which forces a bifurcation, on one side the civilians, the military on the other. Around the green landscape of Africa.
The film is outlined in different lines, both political and civil.
Colonel Mamadou is a loyal officer in the government. With commitment and courage, he guides his troops in defence of the territory. It appears as an honest, audacious, correct man. Calling the cowards while they hide in battle, and runs in the front row to lead the fight, he is a patriot.
There is the tailor Hakiza Nyantaba, a refugee. At 58, he escaped with his family. On his shoulders his sewing machine, because with that the tool feeds his wife and children.
The camp where they live is dirty, unclean, full of diseases, thousands stay in terrible conditions.
There is another colonel with the fake name of Kasongo, he describes his uncomfortable situation between the government and the rebel environments. He is perpetually uncertain what part to choose and how to behave.
There is woman Mama Romance, she deals with minerals. With cleverness and skill, she manages to move easier in spite of the war, thanks to her strong wish to survive to all the ugliness of both the contenders.
Then there is Goma. From the campaign, the film moves to the city of Goma. It is located a few kilometres from the Rwanda border. It is an uncomfortable position, forced to suffer first the consequences of the civil war in Rwanda and then the clashes against Rwanda and Uganda.
Goma is alive, suffers as a refugee all the repercussions of these terrible situations.
It has not only suffered fugitives from Rwanda, the war, the rebels ,but has even suffered the wounds of the good ones.
The UN, the Red Cross are present in the country and they should be the good. But they are barricaded in their fortresses, defended by strong gates and massive boundaries. In the movie we can watch a violent protest against them by the inhabitants of Goma, they shout go back home because they don't need of them. They are right when the rebels attack the city, the United Nations peacekeeping run to barricade rather than protect the civilian population.
The director confirms the reality of all the scenes seen: "In the film everything you see is real, no scene has been built". (5)
Certainly, it is true, but the director has smart to identify the contradictions and complications of the country.
He has the eye of the artist, does not passively accept the collection of interviews, but he uses a refinement of the cinematographic language:
"From a standpoint cinema, I wanted to disarm and immerse the viewer with this kind of meditation is it true or not (by combining the traditional documentary style with cinematography that to traditional fiction film would have) because those are the type of films that draw me in as well. " (6)
His manifestation of war happens with noise. The sound turns into quiet. When the bombs fall loudly near the fleeing refugees, the roar is transformed into silence, into fear. Terror is no in the roar of the cannon but in people's faces.
Congo is a tragedy but the director narrates it with a beautiful editing and colourful images. Then there are volcanic landscapes, the feeling of even perceiving the smell of refugee camps and the poverty. It is even more cynic when he shows loyalist soldiers training. They are engaged in a battle exercise but they seem to play, to simulate the shot they pop bum with their mouth because they have no ammunition.
The same soldiers in front of the camera resemble the skilled actors, shot in close-up, they look at it with skill as Colonel Mamadou does.
On the contrary, the rebels behave like a false political, they use incessantly words with high-sounding like freedom and peace, which appear hypocritical in their mouths.
The film ends with a hope, a little auspice, a light for the future: tailor Hakiza Nyantaba picks up his sewing machine on his shoulders and returns home. There is a truce, a short peace, and everyone slips in because life must continue.
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