‘Tongo Saa - Nelson Makengo’

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“A house without electricity is a house without joy,” we hear a voice say at the beginning of Tongo Saa (Rising up at Night) when darkness has fallen over Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and its 17 million inhabitants. It is just before Christmas and people are struggling to gain access to electric light and dry feet. Kudi is mobilising the residents of his Kisenso neighbourhood to collect money for a new power cable. Davido is looking for shelter after his home and those of thousands of other people are flooded by the Congo River. Together with other young men, he kills time by working out and dreams of a better future.
Tongo Saa is a sensitive portrait of the residents of Kinshasa as they face the challenges of life in an environment marked by violence and coloured by the uncertainty of tomorrow.
 
Nelson Makengo lives and works in Kinshasa. He is a Congolese director, visual artist and producer whose work oscillates between contemporary art and cinema. His film Nuit debout (Up at night) (Best Short IDFA 2019) has screened at over 100 festivals worldwide and has been nominated by the BFI as one of the 50 best films of 2020. In recent years, Nelson Makengo has collaborated as a director with Aljazeera and Meta, has been a jury member of several festivals and is a Sundance Documentary Film Institute and Doha Film Institute Fellow. Tongo Saa (Rising up at night) is his first feature documentary.