CHILDREN OF GOD

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Rwanda - Côte d'Ivoire - Senegal

Synopsis

Rwanda 2012. After the genocide of the Tutsis, popular court trials are set up to bring justice and reconciliation. Veneranda, a survivor, is convinced of the need for these trials. Despite the pressure, she organises discussion sessions between victims and the families of the perpetrators, revealing the traumas that everyone is trying to overcome. When she learns of her daughter’s unexpected pregnancy, Veneranda has to face her own contradictions and a heavy secret. 

Fiction
1st feature
Production

Eijo Ciné ltd (Rwanda)
Marie-Epiphanie Uwayezu
info@ejocine.com

 

Co-production

On est ensemble Productions (Ivory Coast)
Samantha Biffot
samantha.biffot@yahoo.fr

Yennenga Productions (Senegal)
Yoro Mbaye

Director’s statement

Benimana talks about intergenerational trauma and the need to deconstruct prejudice and resentment. The film characters, mainly female, successively go through moments of happiness, chaos, darkness in which love and hate, resentment and reconciliation are intertwined. They thus paint the portrait of my country, Rwanda, in its effort to rebuild itself after the Rwandan Genocide of Tutsis in 1994.

Biographies

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Director

Marie-Clémentine is a Rwandan director and producer. Her short films have been screened and awarded at numerous festivals, most notably at the Carthage Film Festival where she won the Tanit Bronze prize in 2012 and 2018. Benimana is her first long-feature film.

Samantha Biffot
Samantha Biffot
Producer

Samantha Biffot, a French-Gabonese producer, started On est ensemble Production in 2017 in the Ivory Coast with a TV series for Canal+. Benimana by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo is her first fiction project.

Before creating this company, she had already created two other production companies still in activity: Princesse M productions in Gabon in 2010 which produced mainly documentaries 

She has participated in the EAVE producer’s network, Ouaga Film Lab and the Fabrique des cinémas du monde. 

Total budget

€747 497

Financing secured

€256 000

Shooting period and locations

September - November 2023, Rwanda

Expected delivery

May 2024

Looking for

Co-producers, distributors, sales agents, broadcasters, funds

Other Projects in development