Cannes 2020: “On the road to the billion” by Congolese Dieudo Hamadi in official selection

Text by: Siegfried Forster

The documentary En route pour le billion, by the Congolese filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi, is one of three African films that will proudly bear the “Cannes 2020” label. The Festival will not take place this year, but its organizers have decided to publish an official selection on June 3 with 56 films to support “their” films otherwise.

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Co-produced by France, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Belgium, En route pour le billion,  by Congolese filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi, tells the story of the victims of the Six Day War in Kisangani, DRC: "  From June 5 to 10, 2000, the city of Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was the scene of heavy weapon clashes between the Ugandan and Rwandan armies. " For twenty years, these men and women ("  an eye, an arm, a leg was missing from most of them  ") lead a fight to formally recognize this conflict successfully convict the perpetrators of this war and get financial compensation.

► Also read: The 56 films from the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival which did not take place

In the film's dossier, Hamadi, 36, also underlines that it is a continuation of his very courageous previous documentary, Maman Colonelle ( Grand Prix du Cinéma du Réel 2017) and that "  the condition of these women and of these men brought me back to my own story. Kisangani is the city where I was born. As a teenager, I too lived this war there. I remember my brothers and I huddled together in our parents' room, which we thought was the strongest room in the house. I remember the continuous whistling of bullets, the trembling of the walls, the explosion of the windows under the impact of the bombs.  "

Egyptian Ayten Amin and Franco-Algerian Farid Bentoumi

Two other productions from the African continent were selected for the official selection, including Souad , "  a film on Egyptian youth ... a film quite successful  ", commented Thierry Frémaux. Born in Alexandria, director Ayten Amin began her career directing documentary films during the Egyptian Revolution. In 2011, she co-signed the documentary Tahrir 2011 and had already presented a film at the Cannes Film Festival, Spring 89 .

And then there is Rouge , by Farid Bentoumi. This 44-year-old French-Algerian filmmaker is known by film enthusiasts for his film Good Luck Algeria where he tells the story of his family when faced with questions of immigration and identity.Alas, all these filmmakers will never know if, without coronavirus, they would have won the Palme d'Or.

► Read also: The new digital frontiers of the Cannes Festival 2020

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