Movie Review: Benda Bilili!
In 2004 French filmmakers Renard Barret and Florent de la Tullaye travelled to the dangerous and impoverished sub-Saharan African streets of Kinshasa, the war-ravaged capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to film a TV documentary about street musicians in Africa’s third largest city. During that project they met a local band known as Staff Benda Bilili, which translates to “look beyond appearances,” an appropriate name for this amazing group of musicians.
Staff Benda Bilili consists of four polio-stricken paraplegics and three able-bodied men who live on the seedy streets of Kinshasa and together have forged a unique sound playing homemade instruments. Awestruck by the group’s musicianship and upbeat sounds amidst unimaginable poverty, Barret and De la Tullaye began filming the group the day after hearing them play for donations outside a Kinshasa restaurant. The final project took nearly five years but resulted in a life-changing 2009 debut album for Staff Benda Bilili and, now, a captivating documentary entitled Benda Bilili!
The directors work chronologically, and Kinshasa, a decaying concrete jungle for the hundreds of thousands who call its streets home, figures prominently in all but the film’s final act. Leon “Ricky” Likabu, the band’s co-founder and eldest member, is the pulse of the group, a paraplegic guitarist with a distinctive voice who, like the band’s other handicapped members, gets around via what amounts to a tricycle for adults. Ricky is “Papa” to legions of Kinshasa’s street kids, a father figure who protects homeless youths and recruits those showing musical promise to play in his band. In return, the street kids assist the paraplegics by pushing their makeshift scooters around the city.
The story of one of these street kids, Roger, a 13-year-old musical prodigy who creates haunting sounds on his homemade satonge, a type of one-string guitar with a wooden bow secured to a tin can at both ends, is the film’s greatest strength. Roger’s street audition blows the band away and “Papa” Ricky instantly agrees to foster a new protégée. The film proceeds to document the unexpected four-year rollercoaster ride that resulted in the release of Staff Benda Bilili’s debut album, but it’s Roger’s transformation from a talented but timid teenager into a confident, stable adult with magnetic stage presence and rare musical ability that leaves the greatest impact on viewers. Witnessing his story, you can’t help but root for him and feel confident that he’ll accomplish great things in the world music genre.
A scene from Benda Bilili!. Photo by © Enrico Dagnino – © Enrico Dagnino.
Music, of course, drives Benda Bilili!, and the filmmakers succeed in showcasing Staff Benda Bilili’s distinct sound, a combination of upbeat African rhythms fused with blues-like influences. You’d never guess such hardships are expressed in the lyrics (sung in the Lingala language) of such joyful-sounding music, but the English subtitles reveal stories about sleeping on cardboard in a ruthless city and often going days without food. These men survive through talent, and their uplifting music mirrors an undying optimism toward life. Looking beyond the band’s inspiring story, Benda Bilili! offers an eye-opening look at life in a deeply scarred African city of more than 10 million people. This is poverty many Westerners can’t fathom, yet an extended scene on a packed train and a competitive game of soccer between two teams of polio-stricken men reveal the indomitable spirit of the Congolese people. Such positive glimpses of Africa go largely unreported in the Western press.
Although the third act of Benda Bilili! leaves you wanting to know more about how the band’s success on the European festival circuit impacts their lives back in Kinshasa, there’s no denying that Barret and De la Tullaye have captured a memorable real-life tale here, a story of a group of African outcasts who refused to give up on their musical dreams and ultimately defied a social system designed to keep them in the cellar of Congolese society. In an era filled with generic, manufactured Top 40 pop stars who lack any sense of musical variety and merely serve as puppets for major record labels, it’s refreshing to see a group like Staff Benda Bilili achieve success the old-fashioned way…by earning it.
