Shadow and Act

"Viva Riva!" Film Review

By vmar033
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June 3, 2011 11:38 AM
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0 Comments

Writer/director Djo Tunda Wa Munga said that one of his motivations in making Viva Riva was to counter some of the long-standing, dominant perceptions of Africa and African art.I’d say he accomplishes this goal, with a film that unabashedly depicts the kind of orchestrated sexuality and violence rarely seen in African cinema (specifically in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo – DRC – where such scenes are taboo); though there must be something to be said for being so audacious with this kind of carnage and salacity, in a country still recovering from a war that killed millions of people, and saw women subjected to worst kind of sexual violation.

By Tambay A. Obenson
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May 11, 2011 3:20 AM
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18 Comments

It may be should be somewhat of a coincidence that I found myself reading Steve McQueen’s script for his next film, Shame, currently in post-production, at the same time as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. I say that because these two filmmakers couldn’t be more different in terms of style – for example, when one considers how each chooses to use dialogue; Tarantino revels in it; while in McQueen’s universe, the images almost solely tell the story.