Forget the Oscars, I wanna see this one.

This documentary on “Central Africa’s one and only symphony orchestra” will premiere in a couple of weeks in Berlin’s “Berlinale” film festival.

It looks like that greatest of African stories: a struggle against extraordinary difficulties to create something very ordinary. The greatness may lie less in the final product than in the effort it takes to get there, but it’s greatness nonetheless.  

Most of [of the musicians] are still self-taught amateurs. Even for those fortunate enough to have trained for a profession and found a halfway regular job, everyday life in the metropolis of Kinshasa with its eight million citizens is a constant struggle for survival. For many the working day begins at six in the morning, frequently a great deal earlier for the ones who cannot afford to share a taxi and have to walk miles to get to their workplaces. Despite this they attend the rehearsals that go on until well into the night, practically every day. A staggering example of discipline and enthusiasm.

In the meantime some of the orchestra’s repair artists have a whole collection of self-devised and self-built tools that they need to mend instruments. Their methods are as unorthodox as they are effective. Other members of the orchestra make their concert attire themselves, procure the sheet music required and make sure that the children are fed and looked after during the long evening rehearsals.

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In the 15 years of its existence, the musicians have survived two putsches, various crises and a war. But concentration on the music and hopes for a better future keep them going. Kinshasa Symphony is a study of people in one of the world’s most chaotic cities doing their best to maintain one of the most complex systems of joint human endeavour: a symphony orchestra.

 [via Solo Kinshasa]