The first word spoken in Ben'Imana is forgiveness, and the woman saying it has her arms locked across her chest. Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's debut took the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in May out of Un Certain Regard, and it is the first film by a Rwandan director to enter the festival's official selection. It is set in Kibeho in 2012, the final year of the gacaca courts, the village tribunals convened to try genocidal crimes committed neighbor against neighbor. Vénéranda organizes testimony sessions for the women of the village before they face the court; her sister Suzanne thinks forgiveness cannot be arranged in a room. Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi leads a cast of mostly nonprofessional actors, and the film was made across Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway and Côte d'Ivoire, in Kinyarwanda throughout. The gap is that the prize for the best first feature at the largest festival in the world has not yet produced an American release, and mk2 was still selling it in May. Watch the fall festival announcements for a distributor.
8.7SCORECROWNFINDHEAT 38▮
FIND — the score is ahead of the room.
BENCHMARK IN THE 50 · City of God — the 50's film entry; both put a place on screen through the people who came out of it
THE MUSA FAMILY · HEIRWAVE
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