BENIMANA is a story of the friction between collective and individual existence. Veneranda, a survivor of the Tutsi genocide who is working for reconciliation, thinks her past is behind her when her old demons resurface as she learns of her daughter's pregnancy, under the silent eye of the grandmother, who feels the family balance wavering.

Rwanda, 2012. The country is emerging from an era of silence after the 1994 Tutsi genocide, and people's courts are being set up with the aim of bringing justice and reconciliation. Veneranda, a survivor, is convinced of the need for these trials. Despite pressures, she organises discussion sessions between victims and the families of the executioners. Therapy for some, an act of betrayal for others, these testimonial sessions revive and reveal the traumas that each of them try to overcome, in their own way. The wounds of Veneranda's past are exposed again when she learns of her daughter's unexpected pregnancy and the identity of the father. Veneranda has to face her own contradictions and the dark parts of her past.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

BENIMANA is about intergenerational trauma and the need to deconstruct prejudices and resentments. The film's characters, who are mainly women, go through successive moments of happiness, chaos and darkness in which love and hate, resentment and reconciliation are intertwined.They thus portray my country, Rwanda, in its effort to rebuild itself after the Tutsi genocide of 1994.

Production : Ejo-Cine Ltd is a production company based in Kigali and established in 2018. It focuses on innovative and sensitive narratives of human experience, communities, culture, for film and television.