Juwaa

JUWAA

Directed by

Nganji Mutiri

Year:

2022

Country:

Belgium

Language:

French

Genre:

Feature | Live-action | Family Drama

Runtime:

85 minutes

Production: Dancing Dog Productions

Synopsis

Amani was 10 years old when he was separated from his mother Riziki after a traumatic night in Kinshasa. He was 20 when he arrived in Brussels to find her and continue his studies. Amani is haunted by the past. Riziki avoids talking about it even though she now lives as a couple with Raphaël. More passionate about art than his studies, Amani abandons them and drifts away. Refusing to take the first step towards his mother, he runs away from home and makes new friends, ending up under the wing of a car dealer. But his resentment turns against him, against the young woman he covets and ends up hindering the business of his new friends.

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Why we love it

In this first feature, Nganji Mutiri paints a family portrait altered by the unsaid and the trauma of war. With great sensitivity, he approaches reconstruction after a long period of silence where the events of History with a capital H impact forever the history of complex and helpless individuals. This is only the debut of a director to follow closely who places his nuanced view on the stories of two lands, both in Europe, in Belgium but also in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nganji succeeds in uniting experiences from elsewhere and here, from here and elsewhere, without fragmentation, by endeavoring to emphasize that the story of a person is composed in its entirety and is not divided by geographical locations.

About the director

Nganji Mutiri is an award-winning artist born in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congoand currently living in Belgium. He works in theater, cinema, poetry and photography, always looking for connections and perspectives between the singular and the universal. JUWAA is his first feature film as writer/director.

Intention Note

Why we love it

In this first feature, Nganji Mutiri paints a family portrait altered by the unsaid and the trauma of war. With great sensitivity, he approaches reconstruction after a long period of silence where the events of History with a capital H impact forever the history of complex and helpless individuals. This is only the debut of a director to follow closely who places his nuanced view on the stories of two lands, both in Europe, in Belgium but also in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nganji succeeds in uniting experiences from elsewhere and here, from here and elsewhere, without fragmentation, by endeavoring to emphasize that the story of a person is composed in its entirety and is not divided by geographical locations.