Saturday, October 20th
7:00PM
Maysles Cinema
FÉLICITÉ
Dir. Alain Gomis
Narrative, 2017, 123 Min.
Lingala & French, w/ English subtitles
Félicité is a proud and independent woman who works as a singer in a bar in Kinshasa. Whenever she goes on stage, she appears to leave the world and her everyday worries behind. Her audiences are quickly infected by the rhythm of her music and her powerful, melancholy melodies. But then one day Félicité’s son has a terrible accident. Whilst he is in hospital she desperately tries to raise the money needed for his operation. A breathless tour through the impoverished streets and the wealthier districts of the Congolese capital ensues. One of the bar’s regulars is a man named Tabu who has been known to get carried away in every sense of the term. Tabu offers to help Félicité. Reluctantly, she accepts. After his spell in hospital, Félicité’s son has a hard time picking up his old life, but it is lady’s man Tabu of all people who manages to coax him out of his shell. Félicité’s sparsely furnished flat with its permanently defunct fridge becomes a mini utopia in a country that holds no hope for most of its population. The trio forms an eccentric community thrown together by fate, each of whom is free to go their separate ways together.
Post-screening reception w/ live music from Nkumu Katalay and the Life Long Project Band
Alain Gomis is a French director of Bissau-Guinean and Senegalese origin, born in Paris, France in 1972, where he studied art history and film at the Sorbonne University. After beginning with videos and short films, he made his feature film debut in 2002 with L’Afrance which focused on the spiritual hardships of migrants in France and was awarded a Silver Leopard in Locarno. His feature film Andalucia was shown at the Venice Days and Aujourd’hui (Tey) screened in Competition at the 2012 Berlinale and was chosen as Senegal’s Oscar® entry for Best Foreign Language Film.