Rwanda, 1973. Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends in an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile. As Tutsis, they’re part of a small minority in a predominantly Hutu environment. Months before graduation, the students’ lives are rocked by the venomous atmosphere that clouds the country. What comes first, sisterhood or politics?
Adapted from the prize-winnning, semi-autobiographical novel by Scholastique Mukasonga, this was the third feature by Afghan director Atiq Rahmani (Earth and Ashes; The Patience Stone).
Screening in our African Cinema Now! series curated by the Akojo Collective.
Rahimi’s film is a heart-breaking look at the corruption of innocence: breathtaking cinematography and a sprightly jazz-infused score bring out how sweet that innocence was, so it’s all the more devastating to see it cruelly snatched away.
Orla Smith, Seventh Row
A beautiful and disturbing work of cinema.
Soraya Nadia McDonald, Andscape
Frightening… strangely captivating, this is an unusual history lesson shot with verve and laced with violence.
Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily
Community Partner
UBC Africa Awareness Initiative
Atiq Rahimi
Amanda Santa Mugabekazi, Albina Sydney Kirenga, Malaika Uwamahoro, Clariella Bizimana, Belinda Rubango Simbi, Pascal Greggory
France/Belgium/Rawanda
2019
In French and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Atiq Rahimi, Ramata Sy
Cinematography
Thierry Arbogast
Editor
Hervé de Luze
Also Playing
Love
This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
The Road to Patagonia
A travelogue, an eco doc, an adventure movie and a love story, The Road to Patagonia chronicles filmmaker and ecologist Mayy Hannon's 50,000 km expedition from Alaska to the tip of Chile (via Vancouver Island), on motorbike, horse, and surfboard.
Kit Eakle’s Jaz’n’theViolin String Band
Kit Eakle's 'Jaz'N'theViolin' String Band pay tribute to Louie Bluie, one of many fiddle players who gave birth to the new sounds of jazz and blues at the beginning of the twentieth century, followed by Terry Zwigoff's documentary portrait.