Vieux Kilo

Original Title: Vieux Kilo

Runtime: 70'

Expected Release: February 2028

Production Stage: Development

1st Feature: No

Looking for: Financing

Synopsis:

Spring 2021, Brussels. As Black Lives Matter reopens debates on colonial memory, a Belgian missionary invites me into his attic, where traces of his past in Congo have remained hidden for decades. Photographs, notebooks, and a hollowed Bible concealing a gun resurface. Through these archives and fragmented memories, I embark on a personal investigation into a shared yet unequal past – confronting inherited narratives, silenced violence, and my position as an African son facing a paradoxical paternal voice.

Director’s Profile:

Nelson Makengo (b. 1990, lives and works in Kinshasa, DR Congo) is a filmmaker working at the intersection of contemporary art and cinema. His short documentary Nuit Debout won the Best Documentary Short Award at IDFA 2019, screened at over 100 festivals worldwide, and was listed among the BFI’s 350 best films of 2020. His film E’ville (2018) received the Sharjah Art Foundation Award at the Videobrasil Biennial.
His first feature documentary, Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night), premiered at the Berlinale 2024 and screened in over 80 cities. It received multiple awards, including the Special Jury Prize at Visions du Réel and major prizes at IndieLisboa, Astra Film Festival, Carthage, and FESPACO.
He is currently developing two documentaries, Vieux Kilo and Malo Kotra, and writing his first fiction film. His work has been supported by Sundance and Doha Film Institute. In 2026, he will represent the DR Congo at the Venice Art Biennale.

 

Producer’s Profile:

Madeline Robert is a producer and founder of Les Films de la Caravane, established in Lussas, France in 2012. She has since produced around fifteen auteur-driven documentaries, including Malavoune Tango by Jean-Marc Lacaze (IDFA 2021) and Or de Vie by Boubacar Sangaré (Berlinale 2023, with a strong international run). She has been closely collaborating for over a decade with Visions du Réel (Switzerland) and currently heads the Swiss fund Visions Sud Est. She also works regularly as a consultant and mentor, with strong expertise in documentary filmmaking and international co-productions.