Excerpt from the documentary Makala, which screened at the BIFF London Film Festival.
Emmanuel Gras’ painterly observational documentary charts the arduous work cycle of a Congolese coal maker. The work is back-breaking, but twentysomething farmer Kabwita Kasongo’s spirit is indomitable. He dreams, like so many, of providing for his young family and building them a home. From the gloriously cinematic opening, as Kasongo stalks through the grasslands with a machete, before spending a whole day felling a gargantuan tree – which he burns to produce charcoal – through to more tender moments, such as the tough man wincing in agony as his wife extracts a sizeable splinter from his foot, Gras draws the viewer into Kasongo’s world. As befitting its subject, Makala is expansive and patient.