Marie Clementine Dosabegambo Ben Imana It follows a survivor who leads her community toward reconciliation—but it doesn’t extend to her daughter
Marie-Clémentine Dosabegambo conducted extensive research, over the course of nearly a decade, for her first feature film, Ben Imana – A nuanced look at the effects of the genocide in Rwanda, from the perspective of women participating in community reconciliation projects and conversations. Dosabigambo listened to harrowing stories from survivors and heard brutal confessions from remorseful perpetrators. At first, she kept crying, and this was her community too, whose real wounds had not healed. Then I realized: “They don’t cry when they tell me this. Why am I crying?”
This kind of hard-won wisdom is gone Ben Imana. In her twenties, Dosabegambo was planning to attend the University of Electronics and Communications before receiving a call for new filmmakers. She was deeply influenced by the language of cinema and soon realized that she wanted to make her own film about the legacy of genocide, in which she had grown up. Her first short film was about two students, one of whose parents was killed during that time. “At the time, I had no knowledge of the extent of what happened during and after the genocide,” she says. “But that led to this movie.”
essence Ben Imana The film explores the relationship between Vénéranda (Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi), a survivor who leads community recovery efforts, and her teenage daughter, who has recently become unexpectedly pregnant. This causes a rift between the two women – clashes between tradition and modernity, evolving gender roles, and, most importantly for the subject of this film, tolerance. We watch Vénéranda harshly rebuke her daughter at the same time as she urges women who have made very dark choices to forgive themselves.
These themes emerged from conversations Dosabigambo had with these real women, traumatized and/or guilty, before starring in the film despite having no acting experience. “They offer something real,” says the director. Because of her depth of knowledge of their stories and psychologies, she was able to direct their scenes accordingly: “I was also trying to find their language: How do they talk about themselves? How do they talk about this history without being too reductive?”
This reflects his greatest achievement Ben Imana: The film has a very specific point of view, sad but warm. Dosabigambo knew that having a Rwandan film centered almost entirely around women was new in itself, but she was never satisfied with that as a distinction. “The position of women in Rwanda is one of indirect influence and power, but it is a matriarchal society – and there are women who participated in the killings,” she says. “In this space of motherhood where we all met, I wanted to wander into the hearts of women and find the heartbeat.”
That collective spirit extended behind the camera as well.
“It’s a small community. We’ve worked together for a long time in the Rwandan film industry. We get along collectively,” says Dosabegambo.
