Directed by Emmanuel Gras
France | 2017 | Documentary | 96 min | Swahili/French w/English subtitles
Film Source: Kino Lorber
Awards / premier festivals: Critic's Week Grand Prize at Cannes
Sponsor: Alliance française of the Lake Champlain Region
Who knew the process of making charcoal could be so fascinating? Makala documents the daily life of a Congolese charcoal maker who cuts down 20-foot trees by hand, bakes the wood in a makeshift mud oven, and then treks more than 30 miles to deliver the product to market. As a portrait of a father who will go to any length to provide for his family, Emmanuel Gras’ visually and aurally sophisticated doc recalls Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist masterpiece Bicycle Thieves, while the protagonist’s trip pushing a rickety bike on the side of a windswept dirt highway has the visceral sweep of an adventure epic. An intimate look at an everyman worker, Makala is a stirring cinematic experience. ~LB