Rwanda is entering the Oscars’ Best International Feature race for the first time, with Ben’Imana, the debut feature by Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, submitted for the 99th Academy Awards.
The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature and the FIPRESCI international critics’ prize. It then screened at the Toronto Film Festival and will show at the London Film Festival this month.
Told through the eyes of a community of women, Ben’Imana is set in a village in 2012, 18 years after the genocide against the Tutsi. Vénéranda helps survivors and the families of those responsible say the words never spoken, until the past touches her own daughter’s future. The score is by Rwandan singer-songwriter Igor Mabano.
