Speed Cinema Presents: Félicité
Saturday, January 13, 2:30 pm
Speed Art Museum Cinema
Directed by Alain Gomis
“Powerfully expressive . . . A musical, featuring exhilarating performances.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Félicité is a proud, free-willed woman working as a singer in a bar in the Congo’s capital Kinshasa. Her life is thrown into turmoil when her 14-year-old son gets into a terrible car accident. To raise the money to save him, she sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of electric Kinshasa–-a world of music and dreams.
In a country without a safety net to help her with the medical treatment for her son, she’s forced to perform more frequently—even when her heart isn’t in the music. In order to raise the funds for the much-needed operation for her son, she must also accept donations—a humiliating experience for such an independent woman who is not used to charity and the required humility and appreciation that she’s obliged to show.
Grand Jury Prize winner at the Berlin International Film Festival, Félicité was also an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival, and will be this year’s official entry for Senegal for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards.
2017, France/Senegal, DCP, in Lingala and French with English subtitles, 123 minutes. Recommended for 16+.
Don’t forget to bring your Speed Art Museum membership card to verify your membership.