Darkness falls over Kinshasa and its 17 million inhabitants. It is just before Christmas, a few weeks before the elections and the people struggle to access electric light. Kudi mobilises the residents of his Kisenso neighbourhood to collect money for a new power cable. On Mount Mangengenge, a holy place overlooking the city, Pastor Gédéon delivers a sermon about the light of Christ as the path to life and truth. After his house is flooded by the Congo River, Davido searches for a place to stay. He kills time with other young men, working out and dreaming of a better future. Nelson Makengo is a Congolese director and visual artist oscillating between contemporary art and cinema. With Tongo Saa (Rising up at night), he signs a masterpiece of moving images and poetical narration. It is presented in the space and darkness of Les Brigittines' ancient chapel, in an immersive form of expanded cinema specially designed for the festival. Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, Tongo Saa paints a subtle and fragmented picture of a population that, despite the challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa’s nights. This sensitive portrait shows us the lights that are still shining when a city is plunged into darkness.

“Makengo’s darkness creates a fascinating aesthetic dimension we are completely immersed in, without ever losing sight of the dramatic living conditions of the inhabitants.”
Il manifesto