Cecilia Zoppelletto

La Belle at the Movies

Kinshasa, ‘Kin la Belle’, is a city of 10 million people without a single cinema. In La Belle at the Movies the story of the city, its apartheid era, and Mobutu’s neo-colonialism, unfolds through the fate of its cinemas. At the same time, the film celebrates the Kinshasa cowboys who found their identity in the spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. Through interviews and poetic imagery, La Belle at the Movies bears a unique testimony to an African film industry in crisis – orphaned but living in hope for a brighter future.

Cecilia has worked as producer for the Italian national broadcasting company RAI and TV host and writer for Antenna Tre Nordest. Her PhD research focuses on the film archives of the DR Congo. This film is her directorial debut.