Santa Monica-based Outsider Pictures has picked up Rafiki Fariala’s award-winning Cannes title “Congo Boy” for the U.S. ahead of its North American premiere at Toronto.
Courtesy of Makongo Films/Unité/Kiripifilms/Karta Film/Canal+
The film bowed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where it won Bradley Fiomona the best actor prize for his role as 17-year-old Robert, whose family was forced to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo for the neighboring Central African Republic. With his parents are imprisoned, Robert does what he can to care for his four younger siblings while attending high school, hoping to get into medical school and finding musical success despite all the odds stacked against him.
Variety’s Murtada Elfadl praised the film as a “stirring musical drama” that “beats with the rhythms of resilience.”
“Congo Boy” is set to play a number of fall festivals in the U.S. ahead of a planned release in the spring of 2027.
