Venice Final Cut Winner Machérie Ekwa Bahango on ‘Madi Makambu’ and Why She Wants Congo to Be Seen: ‘We’re a Great Nation That Needs to Write Its Own History’

Machérie Ekwa Bahango wants Congo to be noticed by the industry.

“Through my films, I would like Congo to be seen as part of the world. Not for the labels people stick on it, but for what it really is,” she tells Variety.

“The subjects in my films are difficult, but they are issues that people face in the Congo. We’re a great nation that needs to write, and rewrite, our own history.”

In her upcoming film “Madi Makambu,” awarded Final Cut’s La Biennale di Venezia Prize at the Venice Film Festival, she focuses on two lovers, Madi and Djino. Their lives take a turn when Madi gives birth to a child that Djino is not the father of, after experiencing a denied pregnancy. Though she doesn’t want to care for the baby, she must confront her past.

Jurors Tareq Al-Ibrahim, Mariette Rissenbeek and Tamara Tatishvili said the project invites audiences to follow a “genuine and electrifying young female protagonist, trying to navigate the violence and social injustice that is her unchosen reality.”