Kinshasa Makambo Trailer (2018)

Trailer for Kinshasa Makambo.

Though his last mandate expired in 2016, Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2001, clings to office. He seeks a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run again, and finds excuses to delay the election over and over. In a country already on the brink of disaster, his illegitimacy drives hundreds of desperate people to the streets of Kinshasa in political protests that are violently repressed by the police. Congolese filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi (Mama Colonel) follows three young activists involved in the resistance, closely documenting the urgency of their fight and their debate on different avenues of activism, as well as key episodes like the passing of main opponent Étienne Tshisekedi and the alarming warning signs of a potential civil war. A thrilling testimony of youth that can no longer wait for change, Hamadi's film is all the more crucial in a nation constantly denied its own history.