‘PREMIÈRE: THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE - Joel Karekezi’

It’s 1998, Kivu, at the border between Congo (formerly Zaire) and Rwanda. Sergeant Xavier, a hero of the Rwandan war, and the young soldier Faustin are separated from their military unit at the beginning of the Second Congo War. Suddenly alone, they lack the food or water needed to survive in the continent’s largest, densest, and most hostile jungle. They experience hunger, thirst and sickness as they attempt come to terms with both their own terror and the horrors of a region ravaged by violence.
  
After graduating with a diploma in film directing from the Cinecours film school in 2008, Joël Karekezi directed his first short film, called The Pardon in 2009 with the support of the Maisha Film Lab. His first feature film Imbabazi (The Pardon) received a development grant from the Göteborg international film festival. It also won the Nile Grand Prix at the 2014 Luxor African Film Festival and the Best Director award at the 2014 International Images Film Festival for Women. In 2012, his script The Mercy of the Jungle won the CFI award for most promising audiovisual project at the Durban Filmmart. It was also shown in the Fabrique des Cinemas du Monde at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, at the 2014 Locarno Open Doors, the 2015 Atelier Grand Nord, the 2015 Forum de Production de Namur and the 2015 Rencontres de Coproduction Francophone in Paris.