Kouté vwa

Mixing scripted scenes acted by the people who lived the events recounted with documentary footage, archival material and lyrical interludes, Maxime Jean-Baptiste’s profoundly moving debut feature tells the story of a family. At the same time, it paints a portrait of a place we aren’t used to seeing on the big screen. French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, is still officially a region of France and the bulk of its population descends from enslaved Africans. The tragedy at the heart of the film—the real-life murder of eighteen-year-old Lucas Diomar in 2012—is representative of the violence that is still being passed on from generation to generation. KOUTÉ VWA, which translates as “listen to the voices”, is a title meant literally. Viewers are offered a polyphonic account of the murder and its painful repercussions, while the survivors and the people of French Guiana, above all its youth, like Lucas’s nephew Melrick, are urged to heed its appeal. It’s only by listening to one another, the film posits, that they will break the cycle of violence and come together as a community—as demonstrated by the extraordinary scenes of dozens of coordinated drummers losing themselves in ecstatic performance. (Giovanni Marchini Camia)

In the presence of Maxime Jean-Baptiste. 

Maxime Jean-Baptiste:  NOU VOIX (2018, K), ÉCOUTEZ LE BATTEMENT DE NOS IMAGES (2021, K), MOUNE Ô (2022, K)