Cinema Verite to Screen Congo’s ‘Mama Colonel’

A documentary about a policewoman in the Congo fighting violence and injustice, written and directed by Congolese film director Dieudo Hamadi, 33, will be screened at the 11th Cinema Verite, Iran’s International Documentary Film Festival, slated for December 10-17 in Tehran.

The 72-minute documentary is ‘Mama Colonel.’ It is a co-production of the Democratic Republic of Congo and France, Mehr News Agency reported.

Mama Colonel was produced this year. The film is in three languages, namely French, Swahili and Lingala spoken throughout the northwestern parts of Congo and the regions along Congo River.

Colonel Honorine Munyole, more commonly known as ‘Mama Colonel,’ is a robust 44-year-old widow and mother of seven young children – four of her own, three adopted.

She works for the Congolese police department and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Having worked for 15 years in Bukavu, in the east of Congo, she learns she is transferred to Kisangani where she finds herself facing new challenges.

Through the portrait of this extraordinarily brave and tenacious woman, who fights for justice, this film addresses the issue of violence towards women and children in the DRC and the difficulty of overcoming the war in 2000 that split the country in three.