Movie: Viva Riva
Director: Djo Tunda Wa Munga
Written By: Djo Tunda Wa Munga
Starring: Patsha Bay, Manie Malone, Hoji Fortuna, Marlene Longage, Alex Herabo, Diplôme Amekindra,
Editing By: Yves Langlois and Pascal Latil
On Wednesday the 21st of September 2011 I was invited to the Cape Town Premiere of an African movie at the Labia theater, to be honest I didn’t know the name of the movie and didn’t know what to expect so I missioned alone to the venue I knew very little about aside from the collection of labia jokes I had been toying around with in my head. After a 15 minute trip I arrived at the venue, I have got to say it’s pretty nerve wrecking arriving at an event alone because first of all you don’t want to be noticed and second of all you don’t want to be that knob that pokes into random people’s conversations, so I proceeded to walk right through a large crowd comprising of photographers, actors, writers, publicists, artist, skaters and people who seemed to have a genuine interest in the arts. The floor was paved with free pop corn, the air was masked in 2nd hand cigarette smoke, alcohol and a murmur of interesting conversations, it was relieving to see such professional people just being human, talking loud, laughing and eagerly waiting in the foyer, bar area and the outside area to be called in to take their seats. That moment came and we walked in collected our pop corn and chose our seats, The producer was introduced and slowly faded out as the semi-rowdy crowd over powered his voice, clearly everyone was thinking “Let’s get on with it! We’ll give you props later...shortly after we watch and criticise the flick”. The Lights went off and the film reel started spinning and the crowd slowly piped down as the opening sequence captured their eyes and the music lured them into the setting.
Review
The title of the movie appeared “VIVA RIVA”, set in the dusty and under-developed city of Kinshasa where there is a shortage of gasoline and the demand for it is overwhelmed by the supply, this for the majority of the city is tragic as gasoline is also their main source of electricity and the fact that there are gangsters that have control over the supply leaves a sour taste at the back of everyone’s throat, Survival is the mentality and money is a rare commodity in Kinshasa. Enter Riva(played by Patsha Bay) a man who returns to his home town of Kinshasa with a truck load of Gasoline barrels that he has stolen from Cesar (played by Hoji Fortuna) his King pin boss from Angola. Ceaser is an infuriated and ruthless mother *shut yo mouth* who is on Riva’s heels with a trail of blood behind him, Riva’s main objective is to sell those barrels, make lots of money and...Well I don’t think he even knows what the hell he’ll do with all that money once he has acquired it. His greed for money and his tactlessness see’s him splurge money all over town, involve his best friend; an unloving family man who prefers to have sex with prostitutes rather than his own wife, into his world of gangsters, gas and gwap Riva’s hunger for power and money see’s him falling for an enchanting/enigmatic/dangerously seductive fox by the name Nora (played by Manie Malone) who is the girlfriend to the most feared gangster in Kinshasa and that folks is where the nail biting and thought provoking drama unfolds.
This movie is a gigantic orgy of great special effects, makeup, amazing acting, action scenes, twists and turns, shady clubs, a suprising development of characters, whore houses and a great ending... did I mention lesbian sex??? Do yourself a favour and check it out.
I give it 5/5 slush puppies!!!
