CONGO RIVER

On a barge travelling from the mouth to the source of the great Congo River, we are taken on a journey through the mythologies and histories of the Congo and its people. With the river as our guide, this voyage takes us from scenes of hardship and suffering to scenes of celebration and determination. Slow tracking camera shots expose the legacies of the country's chequered and often violent past, but at the same time reveal to us the beauty that lies within this land.

We encounter men struggling courageously to build a future by repairing a 150-kilometre stretch of railway that was shut down after the plundering of 1990-91 and the war. We hear the sounds of thunderstorms and the songs of soldiers in their dug out canoes. In the Jungle we come across a crumbling palace, which belonged to Mobutu. In the East we find a crumbling hospital treating women who have been victims of rape. Slowly an overall picture of the country begins to emerge, a picture, which reveals the darkness at the heart of the Congo, but assures us that, beyond the darkness, there is hope, happiness, song and dance.

See Mobutu, King of Zaire at BEST.DOKS 2006

and When We Were Kings at BEST.DOKS 2006