Congo Boy — Rafiki Fariala

Fariala was born in Uvira and his family fled to Bangui during the Second Congo War. He trained at the Ateliers Varan workshop there and made Nous étudiants, the documentary that took him to the Berlinale in 2022. Congo Boy is his first fiction: a teenager in Bangui chasing a rap career while displacement and his parents' paperwork eat the household. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in May and takes its Swiss premiere at Locarno on 11 August. Sango, French, Lingala and Swahili in one film, score written by the director. The room is right about this one — the gap is that outside a festival badge there is still no way to see it.