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CONGO RIVER
Beyond Darkness
A film by
Thierry MICHEL
Festival de Berlin 2006
Section FORUM
Press-book
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Synopsis
Note of intent
Shooting a film in the Congo
The style of the film
Interview de Thierry Michel
A historic reminder
Filmographie of Thierry Michel
Technical data
Congo river
- A film
- A serial 3 episodes – length : 1h
- A photo exhibition
- A book about the Congo River.
- A making-of the film
- A DVD in French, English and Dutch
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CONGO RIVER
Beyond darkness
“I want to show Africa in the depths of its culture and traditions,
in its timelessness and universality, for beyond the darkness and
tragic history, there is life and happiness, that of rituals, of singing
and dances. We will go up the Congo River from its mouth to its
source. The journey on this majestic river will also be a personal
path.
Thierry Michel
SYNOPSIS
Following Stanley’s footsteps, the film Congo River takes us, from the mouth to the source,
up the largest river basin in the world, that of the Congo. All along its 4,371 km we discover
places that have seen this country’s turbulent history. Archives remind us of those people
from African mythology who formed its destiny: colonisers like Stanley and Léopold II and
African leaders like Lumumba and Mobutu.
This journey to the heart of Africa, beyond the shadows of tragedy and war, is a hymn to life
just like the untameable vegetation that enshrines the river’s shores. During the different
stages of the journey, images from the banks tell of a people’s joys and suffering, of the
celebrations and tragedies which punctuate the lives of canoeists, fishermen, merchants,
travellers, military men, rebels, child soldiers, Mai Mai militia and raped women… An
entire people in search of light and dignity.
Yet this voyage is also a personal one of a filmmaker who already made three films about
ex-Zaire. He showed the arrogance of power and popular revolt with Zaire, the Cycle of the
Serpent, the predatory and builder’s spirit with The Last Colonials as well as the tragic
vanity of a Shakespearean despot in Mobutu, King of Zaire. With Congo River, Thierry
Michel continues his search for light and darkness. He is driven by the desire to go into the
mystery and depths of this country and its forest, back in time along the history of this
majestic river.
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NOTE OF INTENT
Since then, an immense wound has been in me.
What ever was I searching for in that country?
Travels in the Congo André Gide
For some time now, I have been looking for a way to approach Africa in all its timelessness
and universality, to talk about this continent in the past, present and future tenses all at once,
to film the land and the people at the deepest point of their culture and their tradition. I wish
to capture and transmit what creates the happiness, but also the tragedies of this continent. I
have been looking for a way to express what founding values this part of the world can
convey to the other cultures and other civilisations in terms of exchange and dialogue in the
relation between giving and receiving that is the foundation of any human relationship.
And even if Africa has fallen way behind from a technological standpoint in the race for
development and profit which is dominated by financial oligarchies, in terms of culture, way
of life, celebration of life and respect for death, Africa has many things yet to offer us. And if
Stanley, the mercenary explorer commissioned by royal and imperial powers of the colonial
era, went deep into this continent to impose the iron rule of the colonial yoke, others such as
Livingstone were drawn into the continent by a personal and existential quest, in a mystical
rapture that led them to their deaths.
In the footsteps of the former and the latter I went down the great river to better understand
this black continent overlooked today by major tends in media and most often reduced to an
exotic imagery of fauna, flora or images of massacres, rebellions and interethnic wars that
sometimes make it to the headlines of television news. Even if “…after September 11th there
needs to be order in the world’s suburbs and the powers – the United States, France, Great
Britain – make sure of it. Yet even though the roles have changed and new players have come
on the scene, the ambitions are the same and the interests of these populations still come
second. The fate of this coveted region is exemplary of a henceforth planetary
configuration.”1
In this travelling, this progressive discovery, I tried to see, listen, be moved and reflect in both
the philosophical and optical sense of the word. Travelling upstream to the river’s source and
towards the origins of this country-continent, I intend to take the person watching the film
with me on this initiation path. Well beyond the modern reality of Africa and the history of
this country, the path will allow us to weave this part of man’s history and of the world’s
history into our imagination.
Thus, within ten years, after having made Zaire, cycle of the serpent at a time when the
Congo-Zaire’s history was caught in the net of a dictatorship and a one-party system, after
having shot Mobutu, King of Zaire – the portrait of a man who took himself for a demigod
and mistook his country for himself – today with this new film, I went even deeper into this
country, its equatorial forest and the historic time of a thousand-year old river.
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Colette Braeckman in Les Nouveaux prédateurs
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Today, a fragile peace agreement paved the way for reunification of the Congo and opened
many routes, the main one being the river. This is the only way of reaching numerous regions
and is the lung by which economic, political and cultural life can return. It is time for the
country’s unification and reconstruction. This is a key moment and a time for hope of all
Congolese that I wanted to film.
In the heart of this country, roads built in the colonial times have long since been reclaimed
by the forest. Only the network of the endlessly ramified rivers subsists, something that no
human could ever destroy. The Africans have sailed on these rivers for thousands of years.
Generations have come and gone on their banks. Archaic cultures arose there sometimes to
disappear forever only a few hundred years ago and leave those regions completely run over
by wild forest.
Only the river can lift us out of this world of darkness and stagnation. Only the river can draw
us toward light, toward open spaces and farther on toward the sea. Only the river brings us
that peace of mind and body, only the river can get us out of this hell and this chaos. Only the
river creates a pace and gives meaning to creation, a path, an itinerary and a quest.
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SHOOTING A FILM IN THE CONGO
6 months of preparation
4 months of location scouting and shooting with a small crew
3 months of shooting on High Definition
1 year of editing
To shoot a film on the river of a country-continent that is barely recovering from bloody
conflicts and which is still held by regional war lords and rebel factions creates many
difficulties for the crew’s security as well as for organising of the trip.
The logistics were very complex: we needed to go up the river by all conceivable means of
river and land transportation: boats large and small, barges and pirogues, but also SUVs,
motorcycles and even bikes on certain more or less suitable stretches of the river. This does
not include the biplanes and helicopters essential for shooting the aerial views of this
river’s most majestic landscapes, especially its countless rapids and falls. Yet whenever
possible, we always favoured local public transportation so as to share the life of the
Congolese people.
It was necessary to be sure at every moment to keep the filmed material and the technical
equipment safe. We needed logistical bases in the major cities along the river and always
have a fallback position in case of technical or sanitary problems. During this journey, we
also wanted to avoid being accompanied by intelligence services agents who could have
protected us, but who also would have limited our freedom of action in our contacts with
Congolese of various beliefs and ethnic groups.
This journey especially needed numerous authorisations and stamps. We also had to
constantly deal with the different administrative, police and military authorities as well as
with the entirety of security services not only in the government zones, but in the many
rebel zones as well.
Finally, we needed a team of local people, province by province and ethnic group by ethnic
group who spoke the languages and dialects of their regions and were familiar with the
local reality.
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THE STYLE OF THE FILM
Sound composition – voice, sounds and music
The sound track is punctuated by the narrator’s voice, which brings out the mythic and tragic
dimensions of this river and the Congo’s history. Starting with Mamiwata’s shadow – the
river’s goddess who brings good and bad fate and crystallises desires and ancestral fears – we
move back in history and bring back memory’s ghosts: Stanley and Léopold II who, with
powder and canons, but also bibles and holy water fonts imposed the cruel colonial law for
the benefit of large, commercial companies.
The sound design will also be orchestrated by a sound track composed in close symbiosis
with noises from the river and the forest and the insistent murmur of the luxuriant, stifling
and oppressive vegetation. The film is like a symphonic poem and a hymn to the relationship
between man and nature, to this relationship made of love and hate, violence and
completeness.
The sound track is modulated to the music as well. This music integrated ritual and traditional
songs and dances that have come up from the depths of the equatorial forest and whose trance
effects so fascinated the first colonists and explorers. Omnipresent religious songs from
popular Congolese life are also integrated.
Finally, original music by Lokua Kanza gives the sound track its symphonic dimension in a
blend of rhythms and traditional voice with words full of meaning that prolong the film’s
dramatic aspect. Speaking of the mythology of origins, “Listen to this passing wind that
lodges the water’s spirits” takes us toward Africa’s modern tragedy “How much blood
flowed into the river?” and ends with a moral lesson “Congo, come out of your deep sleep.
The time has come, son of the Congo, rebuild your country with humbleness and wisdom”
which could be the way a Congolese person sees the tragedy of his country and the hope of a
new era.
Another person who worked on the film was the playwright Lye Mudaba Yoka. He was the
co-author of the film’s narration giving it a Congolese soul and its deep meaning, that of the
founding myths of the river and history. He tells us of this merciless and irascible river, this
powerful and majestic river that carries the spirits of the waters, this river which tells of the
delusions of grandeur, the rubble and the tragedies of a country that bears the same name and
on whom it imposes its rhythm and its energy.
The sensuality of the image from darkness to light
In he same way, the image is the expression of a savage sensuality that immortalises the
unfathomable power of this majestic river that nothing, nor anyone can control – neither the
falls, rapids and cataracts nor the appeased tranquillity, the restfulness, the harmony of the
forest, water and sky and the fisherman living in complete symbiosis with the river that runs
like blood in veins.
The image reflects the relationship between man and nature, of depth of field between close
up and infinity, the relationship between the individual and the vast land. It touc hes on the
progressive diminishing of humans in their relation to the force of nature, of the countryside
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and the river. Distances take on a metaphoric, even a metaphysical dimension; “Such were
the inert, hot and heavy days that disappeared one after another into the past as if they fell
into an abyss that the boat opened in its wake forever”, said Joseph Conrad in his novel, The
Heart of Darkness.
This film brings out the deep ambiguity in the relationship of man to this river, the mixed
feelings of fear, desire and harmony. It takes the shape of a tale in its description of the
realities that we cross. This tale expresses a positive vision of human effort, of resistance to
adversity, of the conquest of dignity and creative energy. Through the light that bathes the
water’s course, the green darkness of the undergrowth, the nights populated with shadows
and the silence of dawns, this is a vision and a reflection in the optic and philosophic sense of
the word.
This is a film of symbolic realism, with a penetrating visual or even contemplative aspect, yet
there is movement – that of the journey, the river and the film sometimes at a slow pace, at
others rapid, alternating quiet, intimate scenes with grandiose images of the countryside and
the river.
The rhythmic and historic role of the archives
The film is built around flashbacks and on the present/past alternation of current images and
archives. The archives make up a sort of rhythmic refrain and give us a historic and temporal
dimension, sending back an image of time with its historic causality. There are several kinds
of archives, going from the excerpt of a classic film to images from the beginning of
colonisation and the conquest of the river, all the way to archive images of Mobutu at his time
of grandeur. They draw out the historic framework with those mythological characters that
hang over the river – Stanley, Léopold and Mobutu.
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INTERIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR
Why the film “Congo River”?
Congo River is the continuation of other films I made in Africa, particularly in the Congo. I
made 8 African films in a little over a decade, 5 of them in the Congo/Zaire. In these other
films, I captured specific moments in modern history. With Mobutu, King of Zaire, I
attempted, through an eminently cinematic and symbolic man, to go back through 40 years of
history in post-independent Africa.
With Congo River, I wanted to go even farther, beyond a world I knew well – the urban world
of the large Congolese cities of Kinshasa, Kisangani and Lumumbashi. Through this sort of
initiatory journey to the river’s source, I wanted to discover Africa in its timelessness and the
return to its origins, but also in history’s turbulence because a river always witnesses history.
Everywhere in the world, civilisations were built up around rivers and seas (the Nile, the
Tigris, the Euphrates, etc).
This great river – among the largest in the world – has a very cinematic dimension of beauty
and majesty. Thus, there is the historic dimension with memory’s traces on the river. There is
discovery and the journey as well as the encounter with a people who lives off the river and
on its banks.
Why this river?
I wanted to take this great, several month-long journey through Africa, a geographic one
following the footsteps of the great explorers Stanley and Livingstone, but also of Conrad
who wrote the magnificent novel, The Heart of Darkness. The river is also history’s memory.
I crossed a country that no longer had other routes. The river and its rhythm forced me to go
beyond the immediateness of everyone’s own personal experience, to take time in a sublime
place in search of myself of course, since every film is always an initiatory path and every
journey a trial. Yet I also wanted to encounter others in the heart of Africa. I wanted to
understand how this forgotten continent, which underwent a total disaster and all sorts of
tragedies – slave trade, colonial domination, independence, wars and dictators – is now
beginning to reconstruct itself again on its debris. This is all the more true that the river will
be the reconstruction cement and unity of life.
Why the Congo?
I made films in Brazil, in the Soviet empire, in Iran and in Morocco. I made films in Somalia
and in Guinea. I began to travel around the world with my camera, to question the state of the
world with my camera. But, for 10 years now, I regularly go back to the scene of the crime,
that is where I had made a film in unbelievable circumstances, a film very important to me –
Zaire, the Serpent’s Cycle. At the time, I fell upon a page in history that fascinated me, a
country going through drastic changes, a country as large as a continent, fabulous in the
diversity of its countryside and turbulent in its history. I grew a passion for this Congo. I
made friends there and I became a privileged observer of its life. Since then, it has become a
vital necessity for me to be submerged in the heart of Africa through this country and its river
since the river is evidently the main artery.
Without these films, would there be nothing left on the Congo in 30 years?
I think so. I feel like a privileged witness having the chance to shoot images that will remain
in the continent’s collective memory. It will be the portrait of a large African country at the
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end of one century and the beginning of another. In the Congo, my films – Mobutu, of course,
and now Congo River – are truly a reference in the imagination of the Congolese. And since I
also integrated archives in my films – thus another memory – they can also preserve the
memory in the future. Cinema, and even more so documentary cinema, is a fight against
death, loss and oblivion. It preserves memory. An African proverb says that memory is like a
gourd: when its empty, it floats on the water’s surface and smashes on the rocks, but when it’s
full, it submerges to the bottom of the water to keep this memory for a far-off future.
There are some rather extraordinary moments in the film, particularly when we see a
colonist supervising woodcutting. Then we see the same thing today, 50 or 70 years later.
The interaction of the archives works in both ways of History. I knew these archives, so I
searched for a contemporary image so as to create a link between the past and present. In the
same way, after having shot images from today, I looked for equivalent images and
recollections of them in archives. Through this juxtaposition, the archives are an image within
an image and a questioning about colonial history in relation to the present. In this example, I
wanted to show the continued deforestation and exploitation of nature and also the
relationship of the white man, the boss, and the black man, the worker. As for the magical
moments in the film, the river is magic. At a certain point, we set up the camera and we
capture the river’s beauty, its majesty, its greatness and its mystery.
One unbelievable moment shows the boat run aground. A boat doesn’t run aground
every week. You’d think it’s destined to be there for Thierry Michel who has to film
these images. Is it luck or did you have to spend 2 years waiting for these events?
Every time I go on a shooting, in this case on this trip, I draw up an imaginary programme, a
work schedule and a list of sequences I hope to film that will touch on all aspects of life along
the river – life, death, a wedding, a birth, someone dying, an accident, a boat getting stuck, a
war, a rebellion, a religious ceremony, a traditional ceremony or sleeping sickness. Then the
flow of the river will take me at its rather slow pace to encounter – or not – these events. Why
do I encounter them? Maybe it’s the question of chance and of necessity. I don’t know. A
kind of alchemy makes things happen. Of course I didn’t wish for a barge accident that would
leave 250 dead. That happened because this kind of accident happens quite regularly; this is a
dangerous river and death is always present. To reach a destination is a starting hypothesis,
not a certainty. There must be a little luck, but you have to provoke it. You have to be at the
right place at the right time. That is maybe the filmmaker’s and documentary filmmaker’s
capacity. I think that chance and necessity make it so that you’re bound to come upon what
you’re looking for, through alchemy where the unconscious comes into play and especially
intuition. I trust my intuition enormously. That’s decisive.
How was the trip organised?
Our aim during the entire trip was to use public transportation. Barges, whaleboats and
pirogues. When people travelled on barges with building materials stocked in the hold on
those loaded platforms where everyone set up shelter with a piece of wood and some cloth or
tarpaulin for protection against rain, heat and wind, we travelled with them. We settled in with
them. That was important. I had other possibilities and logistic solutions, but we wanted to
share the same mess and same ordeals in a real dialogue with the population. At the same time
– and this can seem paradoxical – we were carrying state-of-the-art material with us, a High
Definition camera, modern and sophisticated spots lights and all the logistic, technical
material. We needed a generator to recharge our batteries and fuel to make it run… 1000 litres
of petrol. We had all our camping material, mosquito nets and… But we washed ourselves in
river water, we shared food, we ate the fish from the river and shared life with all the
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people… That allowed us to be as near as we possibly could to the local people and reflect
their living conditions and their truth.
How long did the initial preparation and the shooting of the film last?
We went on the river and this was no small adventure, neither from a production standpoint
nor from a purely logistic one. The trip was long, for the river is extremely long – 4,371 km.
The trip was going to be long not only because of the river’s length, but because of all the
obstacles, since it is not navigable the whole way. There are rapids, falls and cascades in
seven places, so you have to go around by land. You have to do that in a country where there
are no longer other infrastructures besides the water; there are no more trains. So we had to
take this weighty logistic along with us, for example fuel, water and generators. We had our
cutting-edge technology, the High Definition camera with batteries to charge. Our crew was
large too because I wanted, besides the sound and photo technicians, Congolese people
working with us – assistants, journalists, a logistician and all the local guides and translators
in each province, in each region who spoke the language and knew the local reality. It was
really a long-term journey. I went part of the way with just my Congolese colleagues and a
lighter camera for 4 months. For the second part of the shooting, which lasted 3 months, we
continued with a more complete crew and European technicians. Thus, all together I spent 7
months along the river.
Yet the main difficulty was not just a logistic one. It had to do, of course, with authorisations
since we were filming in a country at war. A country? No, several countries, rather, since each
rebellion has its own territory, sometimes with sub-rebellions fighting each other. Then there
are resisters like the Mai Mai militia who resist the rebels. I had to negotiate not only for the
government authorisations beforehand – and there were already a great number of them – but
also for the local ones. We had to negotiate with governors, the foreign and Interior State
security, military intelligence, naval forces and the customary authorities of each province,
then of each region, each sub-region, and each territory. At least half our time was spent in
these negotiations to get permission and in obstacles such as arrests, identity controls, police
custody in barracks, etc. That, of course, was a very complex and arduous aspect of the trip,
which explains why we needed 7 months of shooting.
More than once there is danger on the boat, in the plane or with a Mai Mai general, for
you don’t know what could go on in the minds of people capable of the worst as well as
the best. What do you do?
We were in difficult living conditions, but that wasn’t the hardest thing because we had quite
a lot of questionings; administrative, police and military hassles with 3 arrests and custodies
in the barracks. There were times when we became weak on this shooting. When you look at
the making-of, you realise how much this shooting was surrealistic and extremely difficult.
For the scene with the Mai Mai, we got an agreement to enter the Mai Mai circle and film
their traditions, that is their initiation so that they explain to us how they fight wars and about
their gris- gris. But to attend these sessions, we had to be enthroned as Mai Mai. Thus, the
director of photography and I had to accept the initiation by fire and sword, sweat and blood.
When you see this film, you get the impression that it was easy to make.
That’s true. When you see the film, you see the beauty of the land; you take part in a journey
that seems obvious, that follows the water’s flow. We move ahead and the images go by one
after the other, day after day, village after village. Yet when you see the making-of the film
and what goes on behind the scenes, if you will, you discover all the difficulties, the obstacles
and the challenges. Those are the two very different realities of the Congo. I think that on the
one hand you have a country being sublimated by a film director, an artist and a poet who
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wanted to pay tribute to a people, a country and its river. And on the other, there is the much
more trivial reality of a shooting that really shows how things are played out, the bargaining,
the corruption, the power struggles, the arrests, the complications and the multitude of
authorisations. Half of the production process was spent in what we sometimes call
“protocol”, which in fact are endless discussions and negotiations with the numerous
authorities. Fortunately, with the local people our relationship was a truly excellent one
because the people were aware of what I did before. Every Congolese has heard of Mobutu,
King of Zaire. And when I arrived at a village on the river, I came to project that film and to
shoot a scene at the same time. That created a unique event. The village people got together –
children, grandparents and all – to see their own country and its history. It was totally magic.
You also see all those boats beached on the river’s edge and you sometimes get the
feeling that you’re in a fiction film, that there is a dramatisation yet which is not
directed. There is a frightening situation in which people survive. How can you survive
that? Do we end up being hopeless for the Congo or do we remain optimistic?
In the film, we say that we are stuck with a curse, even though the river cleanses the blood of
the victims. For sure, I can’t hide the fact that there are some extremely hard moments. I even
went through a moment of total sadness that made me stop my camera. I lost it. I lost it there
for a moment. I couldn’t go on filming for awhile during the interview with the raped women.
It was too much. We really descended into the heart of darkness, into the most appalling thing
in human nature. It was extremely hard to take. It was the women who comforted me and
insisted that I go on filming their testimonies. Don’t get this scene wrong; some will say,
“Why show that? Isn’t that voyeurism?” Yet these raped women told us, “Be our witnesses.
Someone will finally hear us and listen to our words and our suffering”. They wanted me to
film them and I did. I always wanted to see where light could be found in the heart of this
darkness and these African tragedies. I wanted to see how the river could lead us to light, to
the source. That was the path we took.
At the same time, in this scene that is very strong, are there other testimonies that
weren’t used?
There are images that I didn’t show and not only because I had way too many. Some are so
horrible that they can’t be shown. With the raped women’s testimonies, we’re in the story and
each person imagines the horror. Yet to show rebels exposing cut off heads or arms is really
very difficult. In his book The Heart of Darkness, Conrad tells of life at that time and we
found ourselves plunged in it again today, in the heart of the same horrors to which his book
lead us almost a century ago.
In this film, we can feel the mark of the book The Heart of Darkness.
Yes, once I began shooting my first films in the heart of Africa, one of the novels I had with
me was Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, which was a long descent of the river toward
the unknown and toward its darkest part. This journey ends with the unbelievable character,
Kurtz – personified in Apocalypse Now by Marlon Brando – who dies and says, “Horror,
horror”! But I didn’t want my film to end in horror. On the contrary, I wanted it to end, thanks
to the river and to the cleansing of the water, by a revival not only of the Congo, but also of
the African continent in this beginning of a millennium.
To come back to the episode with the raped women, one remarkable person is that
doctor of extraordinary humanism and intelligence and who restores the image of the
Congolese.
In the film, there are many very noble and dignified images of Congolese resistance. There
are of course the doctor and the nurse who take care of the raped women. There is also
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another, every important person on a symbolic level and that is the commandant of the boat.
This commandant has to go up a river where all possible dangers lie, survive, avoid obstacles
while standing by others and managing 300 passengers on this floating village, this Noah’s
Arc. In a certain sense, he has to direct his people. He had to make others respect him because
he is in charge and has to arrive safely. Like he says, “We made the trip with no accidents, no
one wounded nor drowned”. That doesn’t stop them from having fun. He is like a child when
he hears that he has a 3rd son. This is a beautiful, noble and responsible image in relation to
today’s African leaders. He is responsible; he can assume things, overcome obstacles and is
trusted by those for whom he is responsible. Another positive person is the master of that
abandoned train station where no train has passed for 15 years and which is why the
Kisangani region is totally enclosed and cut off from the world. His staff no longer gets paid
and without any resources he makes sure the tracks are kept up to make them accessible, he
makes sure the station is weeded and creates the all the necessary conditions for trains to run
again. All of Africa can identify with these people because you can count on them. They are
the ones who will allow this continent to be built up again.
Did these obstacles prevent you from filming what you wanted?
No, I even shot more than I needed to. I shot from the mouth to the source of the river along
its 4,370 km. But I knew the legs of the river; I had developed each story in each city or place.
The whole editing process consisted of finding a story line and a cinematic structure for
following the river’s course. Yet in the film, there are differences compared to the geography
since the important thing for me was to make sense. I gave priority to the reflection, the
itinerary and the film’s story over geographical precision. This isn’t a journalistic, nor an
educational film. And even though I thought about inserting maps to show where the places
were, I quickly dropped the idea. We are in the parable, in what is universal. The river is
metaphoric. I didn’t want to get into educationalism; that would have killed the initiatory
journey of the viewer through the film.
It’s frustrating because you get the impression that the film is short even though it lasts
2 hours. What is very long goes by so fast. Will there be, for instance, a Congo River 2?
There will be a 3-hour television series that will be very dense. I probably could stretch that to
5 hours. I’m thinking of developing a more geopolitical, journalistic and geographical point of
view with lots of archives and archive counterpoints that make the Congo’s history and the
colonial memory reflect each other. I can have access to many yet unseen archives of great
aesthetic, political, geographical or historic value. I am even thinking of making a 52- minute
long film with only archives, making up the memory of the river.
A question about the problem of religions and sects: there are at least 3 or 4 places in the
film that bring up this question.
I very quickly sensed that religion became really fundamental for the Congolese. Today, there
is a very clear phenomenon of a tired people – more than tired – they are exhausted from
waiting. They waited for independence that waited for the end of dictatorship, they waited for
democracy to emerge. They believed in independence, some believed in Marxism, others in
democracy and nothing materialised. Today, there is an introverted assertion of identity
toward religion, tradition, fetishism and the most ancestral practices, which sometimes
combine. In all acts of life, the return to religion is there like a survival and resistance force. I
think that it is neither positive, nor negative. It is a source of revitalisation, for finding energy
and to reaffirm belief in life. That goes through religion today because the Congolese haven’t
seen other solutions. From my point of view, there is a need to soothe the suffering.
Are the people gullible?
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I don’t want to pass judgement.
A documentary filmmaker who doesn’t want to pass judgement?
I don’t want to take the place of those watching the film. I don’t have to tell them what they
have to think. I take them through a country, through images, sequences, people, tragedies,
stories, poetry and dreams, but the person watching has to make up his own opinion. He is in
a documentary; he is not in a TV report. With fiction, we let the audience identify with one or
another character, ask questions, simply do the work of an audience and suddenly have its
own point of view on what it sees.
So, yes, I do guide and give a direction. There is a moral to the film, but it’s not my role to
say good or bad things about the people that I show. They are like they are. I don’t want to
say anything good or bad about religion. I show the situation, I put it into perspective, I put it
into context through images and it’s up to everyone to decide with his conscience. Otherwise,
I’d take the place of the audience. I think that each person will interpret the situations very
differently. I showed the film in the Congo. I know that certain colonial images will be
perceived as intolerable colonial exploitation because we see a White man supervising
Africans working hard. Yet certain Congolese say, “In those days, there was work and, what’s
more, people worked enthusiastically!” So the same image gives two understandings of it. I
am very used to that because since the showings of Mobutu, King of Zaire, I saw how,
according to the geopolitical situation of each African country, everyone had his own
understanding of the ma n and the dictatorship. I think that a true film leaves the liberty for
understanding according to culture, historic situations and everyone’s personality.
On the boat, people eat monkey…
The film touches on the question of protected species becoming extinct and poaching. But I’m
not taking a line on poaching. I’m showing that indeed, today people living in the forest
survive by killing monkeys that they sell to people who go by on the river and who eat
monkey. It’s terrible because there is this progressive and almost total extinction. I went
across Lupemba Lake about twenty years ago when there were 70 varieties of antelope. Today
there are zero. I no longer saw elephants or giraffes. If you want elephants in the Congo,
you’d have to import them from Zambia or Zimbabwe.
What about the trees that are so precious in this immense forest? When we see that
magnificent tree being cut down, it’s terrible. What’s more, it almost fell on you.
Yes, I was shocked because I was convinced that, given the direction in which they were
sawing the tree, it would fall the other way and that no one told me it would fall toward me. It
fell a metre away… I didn’t expect that. And since the tree weighed several dozen tons, there
was a real risk.
The last image is magnificent, that source…
A source is nothing, it’s never any more than a trickle of water coming out of somewhere. It’s
the farthest point in distance away from the mouth, the first place from where the water goes.
Then other rivers come in to form a greater river, which will swell and swell until it melts into
the ocean. It’s true that a source is a marshland or a small spot of water. It has a sacred value,
especially for the Congolese.
There is a customary chief and the guardian of this source’s tradition preserved by the
ancestors. There, too, I had to go through a little initiatory session and drink the source’s
water to be protected. It’s important and during this trip, I made sure at many times to feel this
gratitude and protection from the customary authorities who were to protect me from evil
spells and the spirits of the water. That seems stupid. By going through the rapids, Dieuleveut
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wanted just to do a feat on the river and he never established an essential tie to the river
guardians, the customary authorities. I think that helped me on the trip.
I love to swim and when I swam in the river, I let myself be carried along by the current. It’s
such a pleasure to swim along with the current at extraordinary speed. People were kind of
worried. I was ahead of the barge because when you let yourself be carried by the current, you
go extremely fast. People accompanied me along the river. Sometimes there were 500 m on
either side until the banks. They watched all that and said, “That white guy is swimming in
the middle of our river” and when I drew alongside, they told me, “Be careful of the
crocodiles”. But when they say, “the crocodiles”, they very often mean witches and evil
spells. Then, “You’re going to swim under water. Aren’t you going to wake up Mamie Wata
who could…” I’d reply, “No, no, that was just to calm her down”. It’s true that there was this
very magic relationship with the river. Yet at the same time, they appreciated the fact that I
dived in the water and that I was a water man. I also showed a ge sture; we’ll call it fusion. It
was absorption and Congolese cosmogony.
Interview with Mirko Popovitch at the 2005 Namur Film Festival, Belgium
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A HISTORIC REMINDER
"After the torrential rains of the previous weeks, hyacinth
were strewn on the surface of the great river. The earth the
river took away with it gave its waters a reddish colour that
looked almost like blood had mixed in and one of Egypt’s
wounds opened up on Congo.”
Peter Scholl-Latour
.
Three centuries of conquest
On the independence of the Congo in 1960, the colonial power had
methodically controlled, organized, pacified, and administered the
conquered territories. At that time there were no longer terrae
incognitae in geography atlases. Explorations had been done
everywhere and threatened the survival of primitive peoples. The
exploring and civilizing machinery had listed even the smallest village,
roads cut across the Congo from East to West and from North to
South. Railways transported populations, farm produce, ores, and the
river, with its many tributaries remained the regal route for boats,
barges, and pirogues through to the most remote recesses of the vast
equatorial forest.
This was the result of three centuries of exploration,
conquests, domination, constructions and exploitation of
resources and people. Gone were the days when Joseph
Conrad talked about his journey into the heart of darkness to
these obscure, wild areas where the white man, the colonial,
the military man, or the missionary only ventured at the risk
of their lives. The Congo was an eldorado, a geological
scandal that had allowed a mad visionary and conquering
king, Leopold II, to accumulate immense wealth before the
same went for major colonial companies and Belgium, a
country 80 times smaller than this vast African territory.
Three decades of dictatorship
Then the Congo sank into more than thirty years of Mobutist
dictatorship with generalized looting and corruption, illdevelopment which took the country into a vortex of underdevelopment, slow destruction of all the colonial infrastructures and
ever more severe poverty. It was the time of solidarity, compassion,
the days of cooperation programmes and non-governmental
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organizations.
But the removal of the former dictator who fell like a ripe fruit in the course of a duly
orchestrated war with the neighbouring countries of the Congo, supported by a number
of major powers, started a new era in the history of the Congo. Old demons from the
post-independence years were re-emerging, with, in their wake, wars, guerrillas,
population displacements, famines, and loss of life in hundreds of thousands.
A country in war and in oblivion
Since then, the country has been living in this
imageless war, this war in forests and savannahs
that cameras from the whole world have left out
just as humanitarian organizations, feeling
threatened by this culture of violence and hatred
which is that of petty war chiefs who share
between them the ore and diamond wealth of the
country. The development myth then definitely
blew out to smithereens, available land shrunk as
it became inaccessible, out of the control of the regular authorities hostile to any one
entering them. Life has not really drowsed off there, it has become the stage of major
dramas and tragedies overlooked by the rest of the world. The hinterland of the
continent has gone back to "terrae incognitae" status, the white area on the maps, strewn
with rebellions, deadly ethnic strife where terror and counter-terror alternate. Anarchical
decomposition and breaking up into rival factions who build their strategies on the
methodical assassination of civilian populations.
Natural plagues such as war, famine, and disease grow faster than the equatorial forest
ready to re-appropriate all traces of colonization and development, all traces of
civilization. As these filthy and costly wars lead to health and food setbacks for entire
regions with the re-emergence of epidemics and this additional curse which so easily
follows the route of armed groups, AIDS. So the result is total disaster, the apparition of
strings of islands of misery, broken up by conflicts, rewriting new white areas locked
into their overlooked tragedies. Congo has irresistibly gone back to its withdrawal made
of tragedies and hostilities, back to the division of its territory and a denser, more
violent form of obscurity.
Traditional cultures have been unable to withstand the
successive impacts of the slave trade, colonization and
today, misery and war have shaken to the core
traditional solidarities and the authority of custom.
Following the collapse of colonial, freedom- fighting and
Marxist ideologies, yet another ideology vanishes,
almost a mythology, that of universal development.
Today, the gap between the North and the South has
widened. The South no longer tries to catch up its
development deficit on the road to never ending progress, it is sinking into oblivion,
drifting into despair and barbarity.
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The river in the heart of the forest
In the heart of the forest, life swells its outgrowth, fills up space. Creatures are born and
disappear there constantly. Millions of eyes, millions of mouths, millions of insects,
hundreds of millions of birds, reptiles, bees and flies dwell here in the heart of the
forest, in the opaqueness and the dark. Eternity is built daily over time. In the mind
boggling depths of creation, destiny becomes an illusion; in this place and this
suspended time, in the heart of such well organised chaos, centuries go by ignoring
lengths of time and history, blind in a way, and impenetrable.
Why have certain regions remained untouched by the colonists? Probably because of
their sinister reputation. Isn’t it true they are called “the white man’s grave?” For
centuries, these regions were considered to be one huge, deathly trap. Certain parts of
Congo are so deep and wild that few people still dare to venture there.
That is what Joseph Conrad sensed, he whose footsteps we are following on this trip; he
who, long before writing his most famous book Heart of Darkness had travelled up the
Congo River. He was second commander on the boat Le Roi des Belges that linked the
colonial ex-capital Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanley Falls, the last navigable
part of the river, later to become Stanleyville, the big city at the bend of the river and
renamed Kisangani by Mobutu.
The aim of the 1,700 km long journey that
Conrad took was to load ivory and rubber and to
rescue an employee of the trade company, fallen
incurably ill after several months of working in
the jungle. In those days, a third or more
Europeans died of “tropical fever” within two
years of arriving in Congo. During this trip, the
captain later also fell ill and Teodor
Korzeniowski, (Joseph Conrad’s original name)
took command while Georges Antoine Klein, the
sick French agent taken back on the boat, was in
delirium, having fallen victim to hallucinations. He died five days before arriving in
Leopoldville.
Shortly thereafter, laid low by malaria and dysentery, Conrad left Congo with no hope
of returning. Several years later, he wrote the most read novel ever written about the
black continent, Heart of Darkness, which inspired Francis Ford Coppola for making
his film Apocalypse Now. In the novel, the names were changed. Joseph Conrad, who is
the narrator Charly Marlow, has the mission of taking a man named Kurtz to the heart
of the equatorial forest. Kurtz is a very unusual character whose house is fenced in by a
row of stakes with African sculls on them and who organises deadly raids in the inland
part of the country. The tribes living along the river consider Kurtz as a new customary
chief, a master over life and death. He dies before returning to civilisation and shouts
out a last cry of terror: The horror! The horror!
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King Leopold II’s ghosts
Already at that time, an overwhelming report on the state of
affairs in Congo was presented to the American president. In it,
probably for the first time, “crimes against humanity” were
denounced. In the United States, an international campaign was
launched in protest against Leopold’s system of exploitation of
Congo. Exaction, massacres, slavery and all the injustices done by
the officers of police in Congo were made known. Between 1880
and 1920, some 10 million Congolese perished in a genocide
whose sole aim was to produce rubber and enrich King Leopold
II, greedy for colonial conquests.
From 1890 to 1904, rubber profits increased a hundred- fold. Leopold II’s possession
became the most profitable colony in Africa. From then on, this bloody episode was
referred to as “red rubber”, red from the blood of the Congolese. It was known
throughout the world because of the barbarian practice that consisted of cutting off the
hands of recalcitrant Congolese in hard labour. From that time on, “King Leopold’s
ghost” (which is also the title of a book by the American journalist, Adam Hochschild)
floated over the bloody banks of the Congo River. We will be sailing on their tracks,
exploring the geography and the tragedy of a country/continent and also exploring the
inner geography of human nature. “Civilisation is desecrated by the bush, but the
desecration is a revelation” said Conrad’s Kurtz and Conrad added, “the wilds
murmured to him things about himself he didn’t know.” On the river, each of us goes on
an inner journey, a descent into the deepest part of ourselves.
Decades of war
The current trip is to be a journey back to the heart of darkness, for this country – and
the river is its main witnesses – since independence in 1960 has been the object of
systematic destruction. The hope of independence ga ve way to a civil war, which lasted
several years and caused millions of casualties. Then came the failure of a predatory
regime that monopolised the country’s vast resources, neglecting them and leaving them
in ruins. It was as if a destructive rage buried everything that was patiently built during
almost a century of colonisation.
In the 1990’s, a wave of revolt and looting gave the final
blow to the economy and the river, road and railway
infrastructures. Then came the so called “liberation war” led
by Laurent Désiré Kabila, but especially by the Ugandan and
Rwandan armies, and its particularly bloody episodes like the
massacre in the Kisangani forest of 200,000 Hutus, most of
whose bodies were buried by bulldozer in the woods. There
was also the machine-gunning of 800 refugees in the port of
Mbandaka.
But the tragedy doesn’t stop there. Once Kabila was in power
in Kinshasa, a new war began from the east. The aim was to
topple President Kabila who was assassinated a few months
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later. This war, a ghost war because it took place in the savannah and the virgin forest,
was violent and particularly sanguinary and lasted nearly 4 years. It was one of the most
deadly wars of post- independent Africa with between 1 to 3 million casualties,
according to estimations. Killing, decapitating, evisceration, sinkings to the bottom of
the river, maiming – the violence was such that no journalist even dared to venture out
on the front. Moreover, on the “rebel” side, Ugandan and Rwandan forces fought
against each other in order to get a hold of the fabulous gold, mining, diamond and
newly discovered oil resources in the east of Congo. Kisangani, ex-Stanleyville, was
once again a martyred city. For several days, the belligerents fought there, causing
several thousand casualties and destroying part of the cathedral.
A path toward the light
Today, a fragile peace agreement has allowed for the reunification of Congo and for
opening of main communication routes, mainly that of the river which is the only way
to access numerous regions. It is like a lung with which economic, political and cultural
life can recover. Now is the time for unifying and reconstructing the country. It is this
turning point and this time of hope for all Congolese that I wish to film during the
upcoming months.
In the heart of this country, roads built in colonial times have long since been reclaimed
by the forest. Only the network of the endlessly ramified rivers subsists, something that
no human could ever destroy. The Africans have sailed on these rivers for thousands of
years now. Generations have come one after another on its banks. Archaic cultures
arose there sometimes only to disappear definitively a few hundred years ago, leaving
the areas completely run over by wild forest.
Only the river can lift us up out of this world of darkness and stagnation. Only the river
can lead us on toward light, toward open space, farther on toward the sea. Only the river
brings us that peace of minds and bodies, only it can get us out of this hell, out of chaos.
Only the river gives us a pace, a sense of creation, a path, an itinerary and a quest.
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Thierry Michel
Filmography
From coal mines to prisons, from Brazil and Maghreb to sub-Saharan Africa,
Thierry Michel denounces the world's distress, sometimes blending fiction
and reality. He was born on the 13 October 1952 in Charleroi, Belgium, in an
industrial region known as "The Black Country". At 16, Thierry enrols at the
Institut des Arts de Diffusion (Institute of Broadcasting Arts) in Brussels.
Today he teaches cinema. In 1976 he is employed by Belgian television for
which he makes many reports worldwide.
He then moves on to cinema,
alternating two fiction feature films with numerous documentaries which are
internationally recognised, awarded and broadcast. Among these are " Kids
from Rio ", "Zaire, the snake's cycle ", and "Donka, radioscopy of an African
hospital", "Mobutu King of Zaire", "Iran Veiled Appearances".
Production
"Congo River"
Feature documentary 116’
Coproduction : Les Films de la Passerelle, les Films d’Ici, XDC (EVS Group), RTBF
(Télévision belge) produit avec l’aide du Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la
Communauté française de Belgique et des télédistributeurs wallons, VRT Canvas, Vlaams
Audiovisueel Fonds, YLE co-productions, VPRO, RTSR Avec le soutien de la DGCD, la
DDC, du Tax Shelter du Gouvernement fédéral belge, du Studio l’Equipe, de Hewa Bora
Airways, de Sony
avec la participation de CANAL + et du Ministère des affaires étrangères français,
le soutien de la Loterie Nationale et de la Région wallonne – Wallimage et Promimage, et du
Fonds Eurimages du Conseil de l’Europe Developed and distributed with the support of the
MEDIA programme of the European Union
"Iran, Veiled Appearances" by Thierry Michel 2002
-
Types:Feature documentary 90 & 60 min
Production : Les Films de la Passerelle, Les Films d'Ici, RTBF télévision belge, VRT,
ARTE France, CBA, RAITRE, Centre du cinéma et de l'audiovisuel de la Communauté
Française de Belgique En collaboration & participation : Eurimage, Procirep, CNC, MEDIA,
SVT, YLE , DGCI, Sundance Documentary Fund,
Prize : - Grand Prix of the festival of the « European Creation Documentary » at Strasbourg.
Official Selection of the Golden Gate Awards Competition. San Francisco – USA
Prize Joseph Plateau – Best Belgian Documentary 2001-2002
Coq de Cristal : prize awarded by the Parliament of the French Community - Belgium 2002
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-
"Ezio Croci" prize for the Best Film, Filmondo, Milan – Italia
Honorary Mention – The Tel- Aviv international documentary film festival – Israel
"Mobutu, King of Zaire" by Thierry Michel 1999
·
·
Feature Documentary – 135' - serial (3 X 52') – 59' - film 35 mm film and beta digital
Production: Films de la Passerelle - les Films d'Ici- Image Création -RTBF Liège - MCF CBA - Canal + - CEE - Eurimages - VRT - RTNC - ORF - MEDIA- Agence de la
francophonie
Prize : * Mention d'honneur "Vues d'Afrique" Montréal (Canada)
Nominé par IDA Los Angeles (USA)
Mention spéciale à l' European Film Academy Berlin (Allemagne)
" Donka, the x-ray of an African hospital " by Thierry Michel- 1996
Feature Documentary - 55 minutes et 85 minutes
Production : Films de la Passerelle - RTBF Liège - MCF - MSF - Zeaux - Image Création Canal + - BRTN - CBA
Prizes: Prize of the Best Documentary Producer of the European Union at "Vue sur les
Docs", Marseille 1996 - Golden Spire Winner at San Francisco International Film Festival in
the Golden Gate Awards Competition, USA. - Prize of the best international documentary and
prize of the best film of the Festival at the International Documentary Festival from Toronto
(Canada) "Hot Docs" - IDA Award in feature documentary section during the International
Documentary Festival Asssociation of Los Angeles - USA
“ Post-colonial nostalgia ” (1995)
Medium- length documentary film
" The last colonials " (1995)
Feature Documentary
* Ecrans Nord Sud Prize, "Vues d'Afrique", Montréal (Canada)
* Prize of Honour, International Festival of Exploration film - Toulon (France)
" Aid for Somalia : a losing battle " (1994)
Feature Documentary
"La grâce perdue d'Alain Van der Biest" (1993)
Feature Documentary
" Zaire, the snake's cycle " (1992)
Medium- length and Feature Documentary film
* Special Jury Prize at Nyon International Festival (Suisse)
* Sesterce d'arge nt at the International Festival of Nyon (Switzerland)
* The Public Prize the International Festival of Nyon (Switzerland)
* The documentary Silver Medal at l'URTI Monte Carlo (France)
* Nanook Prize at the twelfth ethnographic balance sheet in Paris (France)
* Golden Screen at the festival "Vues d'Afrique" in Montréal (Canada),
* Certificate of Merit at the 38ème Film festival of Cork (Ireland),
* First Prize at “ Filmer à tout prix ” in Brussels (Belgium)
" From the grass roots " (1990)
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Medium- length documentary film
* Prize of Honour at Golden Gate Awards San Francisco (USA)
" Kids from Rio " (1990)
Medium- length documentary film
* First Documentary Prize at Biarritz (France)
* Best Belgian short film of 89-90 in Gand (Belgium)
* Prize of Honour at Golden Gate Awards, San Francisco (USA)
* Mesquite Award Winner at San Antonio Cine Festival (USA)
" Emergency exit " (1987)
Feature Documentary
* Prize of Salerne (Italy)
" Private Hotel " (1985)
Feature Documentary
* Prize at the Festival of Nyon (Switzerland)
"Hiver 60" (1982)
Feature Film
* Prize of social Film (Belgium)
* Bologne Prize (Belgium)
"Chronique des Saisons d'Acier” (1980)
Feature Documentary
"Pays Noir, Pays Rouge" (1975)
Medium- length documentary film
"Portrait d'un Autoportrait" (1973)
Feature Documentary
"Ferme du Fir" (1971)
Short documentary film
24/25
Technical data
Feature documentary
Length: 1h56- support: 35 mm & HD (High Definition)
Versions: French and English
Serial
Number: 3 episodes - length: 1h
Versions: French, English, international
Equipe technique/Film crew:
Director : Thierry Michel
Photography : Michel Techy
Sound : Lieven Callens
Editing : Marie Quinton
Music : Lokua Kanza
Narration : Lye Mudaba Yoka, Thierry Michel, Olivier Cheysson
Producer : Christine Pireaux – Serge Lalou
Coproduction : : Les Films de la Passerelle, les Films d’Ici, XDC (EVS
Group), RTBF (Télévision belge) produit avec l’aide du Centre du Cinéma et
de l'Audiovisuel de la Communauté française de Belgique et des
télédistributeurs wallons, VRT Canvas, Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, YLE
co-productions, VPRO, RTSR Avec le soutien de la DGCD, la DDC, du Tax
Shelter du Gouvernement fédéral belge, du Studio l’Equipe, de Hewa Bora
Airways, de Sony
avec la participation de CANAL + et du Ministère des affaires étrangères
français,
le soutien de la Loterie Nationale et de la Région wallonne – Wallimage et
Promimage, et du Fonds Eurimages du Conseil de l’Europe Developed and
distributed with the support of the MEDIA programme of the European
Union
25/25
OTHER PROJECTS LINKED TO THE FILM
-
A photo exhibition by Thierry Michel
A book about the Congo River. Photos by Thierry Michel, texts written
by playwright Lye Mudaba Yoko
A CD with music from the film written and played by Lokua Kanza
A making-of the film from behind the scenes of the shooting
A DVD in French, English and Dutch
The film has already been shown about ten times in preview projections in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the 12th October in Kinshasa and the 17th
October 2005 in Kisangani where it was very well received by the Congolese.