Makala
Description
Reportedly the first documentary ever selected for Cannes’ Critics Week and winner of its Grand Prize, Makala details the almost Sisyphean labor that 28-year-old Congolese Kabwita Kasongo undergoes to bring the charcoal he makes to market. Without pretense or judgment but with great visual precision and beauty, director Emmanuel Gras shows Kasongo’s backbreaking process, which includes a 50-kilometer trek to the nearest village market, pushing his impossibly laden bicycle all the way.
“Simplicity is the key to the somber beauty of Makala, a documentary depicting a Congolese charcoal-maker doing his utmost to raise his family under penurious conditions. French helmer-lenser Emmanuel Gras’ camera embraces the subject’s every move with such rapt intimacy and cinematic poetry it’s easy to forget this is not a fictional drama.” – Maggie Lee, Variety
Cinematographer and director Emmanual Gras made his feature documentary debut in 2011 with Bovines. He also directed 300 Souls (2014) and several documentary shorts. He said he was inspired to make Makala, the winner of three awards at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, by his prior experience shooting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I just saw these people who were transporting these huge loads of charcoal by pushing their bicycles, and who made a living that way. … I thought it was crazy! Do they really cover kilometers and kilometers while pushing that? It intrigued me, interested me, and above all I said to myself: what an effort that must take! I wanted to see it, to know more about it, and after having confirmed that I was right and the distances were, indeed, very long, to share it.” (Cineuropa)
Film Details
Language Swahili
Year 2017
Runtime 96
Country France
Director Emmanuel Gras
Producer Nicolas Anthomé
Editor Karen Benainous
Cinematographer Emmanuel Gras
Music Gaspar Claus