Cinema · A way to begin
Gito the Ungrateful
Gito, l'ingrat
Léonce Ngabo · 1992
Synopsis
Gito, a Burundian student in Paris, finishes his studies and returns home. He has promised his Parisian partner to bring her over as soon as he becomes a minister, and he fully intends to become one. On his return, the reality of the country catches up with him: he gives up this ambition, rediscovers his childhood love, who stayed in Burundi, and has to manage between the two women in his life, the Parisian and the one from his childhood. The film is a comedy: the graduate's dreams meet the country as it is.
Context
A Swiss, French and Burundian co-production put together by the producer Jacques Sandoz, the film was photographed by Matthias Kälin and scored by Pierre-Alain Hofmann; it runs eighty-seven minutes and mixes French and Kirundi, with Joseph Kumbela, Marie Bunel and Aoua Sangare. In 1993, at the Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou, it received the Oumarou Ganda prize for best first film and a prize for best actor, and the year before, prizes at Namur, Amiens and Carthage.
Who it is for
A comedy in French and Kirundi, easy to approach, about the return home of a graduate full of hopes.
Prizes and reception
It also won the grand prize at Vues d'Afrique, in Montreal, and a prize at the Lisbon festival.