Avant-première Rencontre - Congo Boy

Les Cinéastes cinema is delighted to welcome the director and slam poet Rafiki Fariala for his first feature film, *Congo Boy*, which was screened in the *Un Certain Regard* section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. It is a film in which music embodies the strength of a youth that refuses to give...

Les Cinéastes cinema is delighted to welcome the director and slam poet Rafiki Fariala for his first feature-length fiction film, *Congo Boy*, which was screened in the *Un Certain Regard* section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

In *Congo Boy*, Rafiki Fariala offers a heartfelt account of a childhood shattered by constant deadly conflicts, inspired by his own story. We see the reality of a refugee family in the Central African Republic. Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset, the actor playing the filmmaker’s alter ego, won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his debut role. The director co-wrote the screenplay with Tommy Baron and Boris Lojkine (Camille, L’Histoire de Souleymane).

The film thus blends the precision of documentary-style writing with a vibrant narrative of hope, in which the music crystallises the vital force of a youth that refuses to give up.

Rafiki Fariala arrived in the Central African Republic as a young boy, where his parents had sought refuge from the war. His first feature-length documentary, *Nous, Étudiants!*, was selected for the Berlinale in 2022.