Childhood pictures, the departure from Zaire when I was 10, my friends Watumu, Angi and Amosi, the big shift from a culture to another, identity, memories and footage...
Studio project (2010) by Robert-Jan Lacombe
Documentary / 11min
Synopsis
Through the rediscovery of archival images long kept at my grandparents' home in Bordeaux, I tell the story of my childhood in Mandima, a small village in northeastern Zaire where I was born. Starting with a panoramic photo of the big departure, I observe and think back, photo after photo, to those first 10 years of this little boy who must, one fine day, leave for the city, for high school. Behind him, he leaves his friends and a whole culture. Life, its mentality, its rules, will have to be relearned.
Comment
Film about childhood with false innocence. 1 voice + photos. Cut, framed, reframed, revisited, assembled. Which tell us that getting on a (small) plane is not an easy thing. And that it is sometimes equivalent to a decisive step.
Jean-Stéphane Bron / Director
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