Vtáci spievajú v Kigali
fiction / 2017 / Poland / col. / 113 min.
Director: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
Screenplay: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
Photography: Krzysztof Ptak, Józefina Gocman, Wojciech Staroń
Editor: Katarzyna Leśniak
Music: Paweł Szymański
Cast: Jowita Budnik, Eliane Umuhire, Witold Wieliński, Ciza Remy Muhirwa, Herve Kimenyi Rutaremara, Didacienne Nibagwire, Anna Ilczuk, Aleksander Mikołajczak
We catch up with Polish ornithologist Anna in Africa in 1994 just as Rwanda’s Hutu majority has unleashed genocide against the smaller population of Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a local colleague whose entire family has been murdered, and she takes her back to Poland. Trauma from the experience, as well as quick tempers on the part of both women, prevent them from finding peace; on top of that, Claudine refuses to play the victim. Later, when the position of the Rwandan tribes is reversed, the young woman returns home. Unwilling to take the steps necessary to advance her scientific career Anna follows Claudine back to Africa, and there she observes the Tutsi woman’s search for traces of her former life and the graves of her loved ones. Everywhere she goes, Claudine comes up against the survivors’ attempts to come to terms with what they have lost. (source: Karlovy Vary IFF)