Petit Pays, a movie by Rwandan-French rapper and author Gael Faye has scooped the best movie and actress awards in Barcelona International Short Film Festival. The latter is an international, juried short film festival based in Barcelona, created in 2017. BSF screens outstanding short films, including narrative, animation, experimental, documentary and video art. In the festival’s 23rd edition, Petit pays won the best film award and the film’s main actress Isabelle Kabano won the best actress award. After the awarding ceremony, Gael Faye shared his excitement on Twitter saying, “Petit Pays, wins the best film and Isabelle Kabano the best actress of Barcelona’s International Cinema Festival, Congratulations Rwanda and France!”, he tweeted. Petit pays’ awards are a moving tribute because apart from BSF, Petit pays’ director Eric Barbier has also been nominated for The Cesar awards, and this is the second award for Isabelle Kabano who scooped the first one in Film Francophone d’Angoulême last year. Translated as Gahugu gatoya, the film was adapted from Gael Faye’s novel, “Petit pays” revolving around the civil war in Burundi and subsequently the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It recounts a story of a group of five boys in Bujumbura with a good town upbringing, living near nature in a friendly atmosphere, but suddenly the war breaks out, but one of the characters, Gabriel tries to stay away from the ethnic labels and does not want to be called a Hutu or Tutsi. However, the war was a reality he had to face. The movie had been translated into 35 languages as of 2020 and during its launch in 2017, Jeanette Kagame, Rwanda’s first lady recognised it as “A moving tribute to the history and strength of our country”.
