Keswick Film Club - Félicité

Synopsis

"The opening sequence of 'Félicité', a moving and expansive fourth feature from the French Senegalese director Alain Gomis, is a gorgeous blur of chatter, movement and song. In a crowded bar in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, patrons drink and dance into the wee hours, their loud, bickering voices clashing with the music performed by the real-life local collective Kasai Allstars and a club singer named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya), whose somber gaze magnetizes the camera from the first frame" - Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times.

Félicité's life, already hard, is about to get a whole lot harder, however; her son has an accident and she has to find the money for an operation, and she has to find it now. She goes out on to the streets of Kinshasa calling in old debts and favours. "At every step she is met with the contempt and hostility of those she asks for help, including her own family" - Chang again.

"Félicité was the Senegalese entry to the Oscars and was up for the Golden Bear award at Berlin. The acting of Véro Tshanda Beya (a singer in Senegal, this is her first part), also gets praised - "Appearing in almost every scene, she carries the film in close-up, with strained subtle grimaces signalling a world of pain beneath" -
Kevin Maher, Times.