Koute vwa
Maxime Jean-Baptiste
Guyana, Belgium - 2024 - 77 min
synopsis
Melrick is a turbulent young boy who spends his summer in Guyana with his grandmother to escape his tumultuous daily life in Stains, France. At the end of his stay, he plays the drum to revive the memory of his late uncle, Lucas Diomar, who died in tragic circumstances. Despite a wave of murders of young men that shakes the news, Melrick becomes aware of his place in a family destroyed by irreparable grief.
Director
Maxime Jean-Baptiste (1993), based between Brussels and Paris, grew up in the context of the Guyanese and West Indian diaspora in France. As a filmmaker, he explores the complexity of Western colonial history by detecting the survival of past traumas in the present. His audiovisual and performative work focuses on archives and forms of reconstruction as a perspective to conceive of a living and embodied memory. Nou voix (2018) received the Jury Prize at the Festival des CinémasDifférents et Expérimentaux in Paris. Ecoutez le battement de nos images (2021), co-directed with his sister Audrey, was selected for CPH:DOX, Hotdocs, ISFF Clermont-Ferrand, IDFA, FIFAC and many other festivals. Moune Ô (2022) was presented at the Berlinale Forum and True/False in the United States. Kouté vwa (2024) is his first feature film.

PLUG
PRODUCTION
Twenty Nine Studio & Production
Co-production: Spectre Productions, Atelier Graphoui, Shelter Prod
DIFFUSION
PARTICIPATION
Cinema and Audiovisual Center of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, CBA – Audiovisual Center in Brussels, Bruits Asbl, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Guyana Region, Wallonia-Brussels Federation – FWB
Rewards
- 2024 • Festival internazionale del film Locarno (Switzerland) Special Mention Cineasti del Presente & Special Jury Prize CINÉ+
- 2024 • FIFAC – International Documentary Film Festival Amazonia Caribbean (Guyana) Feature Film Competition
- 2024 • Festival of 3 Continents (France) Special screening
- 2024 • CinéMartinique Festival (Martinique) Documentary competition
- 2024 • FIFAM – Amiens International Film Festival – Feature Film Jury Prize & UPJV Student Jury Prize