La Vie est Belle (1987)

Original title

La vie est belle

Directed by

Mwezé Ngangura, Benoît Lamy

Genre

comedy film

Country

France, Belgium

Runtime

1h 20m

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 13 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A poor village musician moves to Kinshasa to pursue a music career. The film follows his rags-to-riches journey and celebrates Congolese culture and daily life.

upbeatlightheartedmusicaljoyfulearthyenergeticwarmoptimistic

What happens

La Vie est belle (English: Life is Rosy) is a 1987 musical comedy directed by Mwezé Ngangura and Benoît Lamy. The film is set in Kinshasa's music scene and tells the rags-to-riches story of a poor village musician, played by Papa Wemba, who moves to the city hoping to build a successful music career. Instead of focusing on the effects of colonialism, as many African films of the time did, La Vie est belle celebrates Congolese culture, music, and daily life in Kinshasa. The cast also includes Bibi Krubwa Landu, Landu Nzunzimbu Matshia, Kanku Kasongo, Lokinda Mengi, Feza Alfa, Pépé Kallé and Rody Emoro. Ngangura was inspired to make La vie est belle after attending the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, where his short film Kin-Kiesse (1983) won the award for Best Documentary. After watching many of the films shown at the festival, he believed that they did not speak directly to African audiences because they focused more on showing Africa than on telling stories about the lives of its people. He also drew ideas from comedy sketches that were regularly shown on national television and were popular because they focused on the daily experiences of ordinary people. Choosing Papa Wemba and music as the main focus was a deliberate decision to appeal to audiences in the Congo and throughout Africa, where Congolese musicians were among the continent's most popular performers. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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