Mutiganda wa Nkunda, 32, defines himself first and foremost as a cinephile who “eat” and “drinks movies like water”. His interest in cinema manifests itself very early on. After having seen many Hollywood films or karate narrated in Kinyarwanda in makeshift cinemas in the city of Kigali, the Rwandan capital where he grew up, he discovered Indian film at 12 years old, Disco Dancer (1982). The story of the hero and his mother, ostracized by society, reminds him of his own journey. That of the youngest of a family of 9 children raised by a mother widowed by the genocide. “I will make films to tell the story of my mother and me”, he promised himself at the time. For Mutiganda wa Nkunda, cinema will never again be reduced to mere entertainment. This quest for meaning on the screens will be further fueled by his appetite for Italian neorealism (a post-war cinema that breaks with the lightness of the previous era). Like his masters who are the Swede Ingmar Bergman, the American Martin Scorcese, the Italian Vittorio De Sica, the British Ken Loach, the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, the Taiwanese Hou Hsiao hsien or the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène, he wants to make films at “(his) manner”, insists the young man who claims his status as a self-taught filmmaker. After obtaining his diploma in agriculture, he turned to film criticism in 2013. A profession he left to devote himself to directing. The Rwandan filmmaker signed his first short film in 2014.
We met Mutiganda wa Nkunda on the eve of the proclamation of the winners of the 27th edition of Fespaco, of which the Yenneng Gold Standard was awarded to The Gravedigger’s Wife Khadar Ayderus Ahmed. His film, The Anonymous (Nameless), left with the price of the screenplay he authored. This camera, perfectly calibrated by its director, is the tragic descent into hell of a couple of young Rwandans in love but who will tear themselves apart because of financial difficulties.
Franceinfo Africa: Your film is based on a true story. How did you hear about it?
Mutiganda wa Nkunda: In 2011, I learned from the newspapers that a man named Philibert had killed his wife with a machete following an argument over 5,000 Rwandan francs (5 euros) that his partner allegedly misused. I realized that this man and I went to the same high school. I had even met him a few months before the tragedy and he was working as a security guard. He was a teacher by training but could not find a job in his field. This story stuck in my head and in August 2017 I was watching this British film by Ken Loach, Cathy comes Home (1966). It is the story of a homeless couple who fight to survive in London in the 60s. After seeing the film, I imagined these characters in Kigali and the story of my friend came back to me. So I decided to make a film of it, and I wrote the first draft of the script that day. Then I called my friends, my collaborators and I told them that I would start shooting this film, my first fictional feature, on my birthday, October 18th. It was the best gift anyone could give me. I did not have money. Not the experience: I had only made short films and worked on series in Rwanda. I was really afraid I wouldn’t make it. On the third day of filming, and this is the first time that I say this, I actually started to bleed from the nose because of the stress. I launched to the team we were quitting but everyone encouraged me to continue because it was a story that deserved to be told. We started filming on October 18, 2017 and it lasted nine days.
How did you manage to complete this film when you did not have the necessary resources?
I started to go up without knowing what I was going to do with the final product that I liked. I was so happy with the result and excited that I didn’t sleep. I then began to send letters all over the place to those I knew in the film industry. Noone answered me. I then turned to the workshops, including that of the JCC (Carthage Cinematographic Days) and Azza Chaabouni the director of the post-production Takmil workshop liked the first cut and selected it. One of Takmil’s jurors also liked it and co-produced it and then put me in contact with Orange Studio who co-produced it and bought the distribution rights.
For the scenario of this film, you have engaged in a rather particular exercise. Why this step?
I didn’t want to write the script because I wanted to keep this story original. I was afraid to put ideas of my own into a story that was not mine. I produced a 20-page document that I sent to my actors telling them that the protagonists of this story were their neighbors or friends. I asked them to do research on their characters because they already knew them. I prefer spontaneous dialogues, which bring realism to the characters. That’s why we first rehearsed the scene as it was written. I followed the acting and then we enriched the script together.
Your film is based entirely on the very convincing performance of your actors, Colombe Mukeshimana and Yves Kijyana, who play Kathy and Philibert respectively. Are they professional actors? How did you choose them?
I cannot say that they are professional actors because the first fiction film produced in Rwanda by a Rwandan filmmaker dates from 2011 and is called Gray Matter from Kivu Ruhorahoza. This tells you how young the film industry is in our country. Therefore, I cannot say that they are professionals, but they are in the sense that they understand the issues involved in producing a film. When I write, I often have actors in mind. I know Colombe and Yves, they are friends. They have already acted in short films which have met with some success.
Anonymous discusses several issues, including the difficulties that young people often have in making ends meet and the violence that women experience on a daily basis. For you, what is it really about in this fiction?
This film is my story and that of other young people who are fighting to survive in Kigali, a fast-growing city, where the cost of living is increasing. For example, I consider myself unemployed because I do not work in the field in which I graduated, agriculture.
It is also a love story. It’s not their fault Kathy and Philibert eat each other. “When hunger is at the door, love goes out the window”, says the adage. The violence I am talking about here is very frequent in Rwanda. This type of news item – a man who kills his wife or a woman who kills her husband – is reported almost daily in the newspapers. The character of Kathy dies every day. There is also a bit of my mother in this character. He has his fighting spirit and his strength: Kathy embodies the resilience of women in the face of adversity. These are all these themes that I wanted to evoke in this film.
You say that these tragedies occur regularly in your country. Y is he aware of violence against women?
Rwanda is the country with the most women in its parliament. There is therefore a political will to fight this scourge. But socially, violence against women remains a serious problem. Moreover, the film arouses in Rwanda a real debate about the tragic fate of Kathy. Some find her too ambitious or ungrateful. For me, this denotes the patriarchy that still prevails in our society, which is subject to both religious and traditional influences conveying the idea that the place of women is at the foot of men. An opinion that I do not share at all: women have rights !
Several big names in world cinema have influenced you. Who is the African filmmaker who impresses you the most?
Sembène Ousmane is a great filmmaker. I have seen all of his films. I try to write my female characters like him because they have an incredible strength in common. Besides, I’m even afraid to remake his films. Sembène Ousmane is comparable to political leaders like Lumumba who fought for our independence because he used the cinema to decolonize minds. If African politicians looked at his works, the African continent would be truly independent. The hero of his film, Xala (1975, adapted from his eponymous book published in 1973), is the faithful portrait of our politicians today. When they come to power, they don’t know where they came from and why they were chosen. There should be a Sembène Ousmane program in all schools on the continent because it talks about the real problems of Africa.