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Benda Bilili!

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

Congo, France · 2010
Rated PG-13 · 1h 26m
Director Florent de La Tullaye
Starring Léon Likabu, Roger Landu, Coco Ngambali Yakala , Theo Nsituvuidi
Genre Documentary, Music

Ricky has a dream: to make Staff Benda Bilili the best band in Congo Kinshasa. Roger, a street child, more than ever wants to join these stars of the ghetto, who get around in customized tricycles. Together, they must avoid the pitfalls of the street, stay united and find the force to hope in music. For six years, from the first rehearsals to their triumph in international festivals, BENDA BILILI! (“beyond appearances”) is the story of this dream come reality.

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What are people saying?

What are critics saying?

70

Variety by

Audiences will find the group's triumph inspiring.

63

Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker

The film's inquiry into the artistic method remains somewhat at the superficial level, but the directors do a fine job of emphasizing both the circumstances that lead to the music's creation and the satisfying result of the irrepressible sounds.

40

Time Out by David Fear

It may be petty to dismiss such a rags-to-much-better-rags story, but given how manipulatively constructed this music doc is, even in its rawest moments, you still leave feeling like you've been played.

90

Village Voice by Ernest Hardy

But real-life hard-knock plot twists, as well as some tweaking of form (there's no narrator or voiceover of any kind; the film's subjects outline their grim realities largely through their rhythmically upbeat songs) make the film absolutely riveting, as does the fiercely rousing music.

90

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Benda Bilili! earns its exclamation point. It's a feel-good movie that actually makes you feel good, a story that will have you shaking your head in astonishment and moving your feet to some unstoppable rhythms.

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