Hot Docs - Congo in Four Acts

Rating: ****

Events in Congo don’t make the news a lot, but it’s one of the most unstable areas in Africa and that’s really saying something. This is where the documentary works really good, highlighting the people, stories and aspects of current events that don’t typically get covered in the nightly news. What makes Congo in Four Acts even more interesting is that it’s four short documentaries directed by filmmakers from The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). From the impoverished streets to the overworked civil servants, a very fascinating light is shed on this country by the people who know it best.

The project began as an educational experience for its filmmakers: Dieudo Hamadi, Divita Wa Lusala and Kiripi Katembo Siku. The result was a refreshingly honest and direct look the people and problems of Congo, representing four very diverse subject matters. In Ladies in Waiting the bureaucratic nightmare that is a struggling maternity ward is examined. Symphony is an eye-opening, first-person look at the slums of Kinshasa. Zero Tolerance is an almost COPS-like vignette about justice and sexual violence in the eastern DRC. Then, to finish, there’s Mine, which is about young children that break rocks for pennies.

Each of these films offers a unique insight into several areas of life in the Congo. It’s hard to pick a single segment that has more of an impact than the others, but those versed on the issues will certainly come to appreciate Zero Tolerance. Rape has been used as a weapon with alarming frequency in the Congo, but seeing the sight of young men under the age of 13 being brought in to the police charged with sexual assault is fairly haunting. Combined with the matter of fact manner in which these boys are brought in to elocute their crimes with the parents trying to make excuses for them, and you’ve got a really bleak picture of human rights in the Congo.

By comparison, Ladies in Waiting, Symphony and Mine aren’t nearly as sensational, but they are still very powerful. These three highlight tremendously the struggles with poverty and status in the Congo. Mine shows a mother and child breaking rocks for hours in order to make the equivalent of a quarter for all that hard labour. The barter system is taken to the extreme in the maternity ward featured in Ladies in Waiting where treatment continues only if the women or a family member is able to provide a significant item for collateral. Both of those shorts are vastly different in opposition to the starkly silent Symphony, as the only sound comes from life on a crowded, filthy street in the city of Kinshasa that’s just miles from a more affluent area.

There’s a looking glass factor to Congo in Four Acts where in we’re given these brief though potent little insights into life in the DRC. We see what life is like in this place but we’re not given either context or commentary. The filmmaking style is very visceral and immediate, almost the roughest, greatest intention of the documentary art form. Basically, these are stories and insights that could only be gotten by people living in this place, at this time. Fascinating and enlightening, Congo in Four Acts is a must see for anyone interested in issues and Africa.