Jolie Murenzi, a filmmaker determined to help Rwandans hone their theatre skills

As an art director in the local film industry and beyond, Jolie Murenzi says she is “tired of attending international film festivals and eating hotel food.” Instead, she wants to see more Rwandans tell stories of their own. Moses Opobo caught up with her on the first day of shooting for the movie, Birds are Singing in Kigali at Umubano Hotel last week. Briefly, who is Jolie Murenzi? I’m a Rwandan based in Kigali. I’m an artist both by profession and by passion. I’m a film maker and in this industry you have more than seven departments. I’m in charge of the art department which is in charge of special effects, make up and costume. I can paint and I can do special effects as well. I’m into film both here and abroad. I have participated in fifty two film festivals. I believe that you don’t become an artist, but are born one. Since I was a child, I was always fascinated by film. I never ever dreamt of becoming a fashion designer or anything else. I am married to my kids, my country, and my work, in no particular order. Tell us about Birds are Singing in Kigali This is a film by Joanna Kos-Krauze, a famous film director from Poland. She wrote this story about Rwanda, a very beautiful story in which a Tutsi girl, Claudine Mugambira escapes with friends to Europe during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. In 1997 she decides to come back home, just to bury her family and to meet her family’s killers. When she comes back to Rwanda, she finds birds that had fallen silent during the genocide singing again, so she decides to stay. That’s the story of the film. The film depicts the process of recovering from trauma, a tragic necessity to choose life after miraculously surviving the hell of extermination. It chronicles the wrestling with Polish authorities, the living conditions of refugee center, and the overflowing Rwandan orphanages following the genocide, partly as a result of rape. Where is the movie being shot? The plot is set both in Rwanda and in Poland. The main characters are two women, Anna Keller (40), a Polish Ornithologist and divorcee for many years, and Claudine, a young Tutsi woman. We are working with over one thousand extras, although there are only two lead actors. Our crew is made up of 40 actors from everywhere, including England and Canada. Rwandans are few on the crew because as film makers we still have a lot to learn. We do not have enough of the required skills yet. ‘Birds are Singing in Kigali’ will be showing things as they are, how things went, not the opposite. The film will be out between February and April next year. It will premiere both in Rwanda and in Poland. We are working in partnership with the Rwanda Defense Forces, the ministry of Youth and Culture, CNLG, the Ministry of Defense and the Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS). We are shooting in the streets of Kigali, Kigali prison, the Umubano hotel, in Nyamata, where the lead actor Claudine lived before the genocide, and also in Nyagatare and Nyungwe. How did you hook up with the film director Joanna Kos-Krauze? Joanna knew me already as a filmmaker in Rwanda. So she contacted me and we had a conversation during her take rec (location scouting) for this movie. The take rec involved meeting government institutions and other decision makers, because after the BBC documentary titled ‘The Untold Story’, we’re very careful as Rwandans. We don’t want any second ‘Untold Story’. I like Joanna as a person who deeply understands Rwanda’s history. What’s your take on the state of the film industry in Rwanda? The Rwandan film industry is promising. It has a bright future. But young filmmakers have to learn cinema as well. So I encourage them to join places like the Kwetu Film Institute and learn how to shoot films professionally, write scripts, learn how to paint, or my work (art directing). I believe there is a bright future for Rwandan films. The major challenge for film production in Rwanda is that we don’t have enough technicians, so most productions when they come over, they bring their own technicians. That’s a major challenge we face. The message to the youth is to come and learn theater. Don’t just wake up one day and say you’re a film maker. Come and learn cinema first, then put it on an international level.

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Jolie Murenzi, a filmmaker determined to help Rwandans hone their theatre skills