Documentary Kinshasa Symphony

Kinshasa Symphony
The awarded film about a symphony orchestra in the Congo

Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste / Armand Diangienda, conductor

Director: Claus Wischmann, Martin Baer
Producers: Sounding Images in coproduction with WDR and RBB

Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Orff’s “Carmina Burana” in total darkness. A power cut has hit the Ngiri Ngiri district of Kinshasa, only a few bars before the last section of the work. Kinshasa’s power stations and main networks are insufficient to supply electricity to all the 8 million inhabitants of what is Africa’s third-largest city. Once again the lights have gone out in the “Salle des fetes”, a kind of open garage where the orchestra practises. But for its members this is no reason to stop rehearsing. Most of them know their parts by heart. Small lapses of memory are compensated for by a talent for improvisation and the grace of God. ( C major )

Running Time Total: 95 minutes

This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.