Congolese director Nelson Makengo’s Rising Up at Night (Tongo Saa), premiering at the 74th Berlinale, presents a captivating portrayal of a community navigating the challenges of a flooded Kinshasa under the cover of darkness.
Rising Up at Night begins with a pitch-black screen, lasting approximately two minutes. In this opening sequence, words of encouragement can be heard, detailing the recent challenges faced by communities in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the 11th-largest country in the world by area.
As darkness descends over the city, some areas remain flooded by the Congo River for four months. Locals describe their city as a disaster zone. This poignant documentary, which expands upon Makengo’s earlier short film Nuit debout (2019), follows the community as they endeavor to regain access to light by fundraising for a new power cable. Meanwhile, Pastor Gédéon delivers a sermon about the light of Christ as the path to life and truth, striving to instill hope within the community. The elderly and women face perilous threats in the darkness. With nothing visible, they often stumble and suffer injuries, while the youth are vulnerable to assaults. Their only defense is the lighting supplies sold by Kudi on the streets. At Christmas, he transforms into Santa, bringing a glimmer of joy to the city’s residents. Young Davido waits for the river to recede from his neighborhood by exercising, confronting the uncertainty of tomorrow.
As his debut feature documentary, Rising Up at Night, premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, offers a nuanced portrayal of a city marked by inequity and violence, yet captured with the hypnotic beauty of Kinshasa at night. The vibrant, dazzling light supplies create striking imagery that immerses viewers in the atmosphere of hope and disappointment that pervades when darkness reigns. Music plays a crucial role in fostering intimacy between the subjects and the audience.
Primarily set at night, with a few daylight scenes towards the end, Rising Up at Night presents artistic and lyrical glimpses of the community, prompting reflection on what truly matters in our privileged lives compared to the harsh reality faced by Kinshasa’s residents every night. It encourages contemplation of what one would do and what can be done in such circumstances, with Makengo emphasizing the process as a source of hope and resistance. Even as it observes the hardships endured by its characters, the film ultimately finds hope in the resilience and indomitable spirit of the community, though the darkness persists and the river continues to flood.
A co-production involving the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, and Qatar, the film is produced by Rosa Spaliviero for Twenty Nine Studio & Production (Brussels) and Dada Kahindo Siku for Mutotu Productions (Kinshasa), and co-produced by Berlin-based Five Film, Ouagadougou-based Diam Production, and Belgium’s Auguste Orts, Magellan Films, and RTBF. Austrian outlet Square Eyes handles its world sales.
