Tongo Saa by Nelson Makengo

  • HD video, color, 16:9
  • 96 min.
  • 2024
  • DRC/BE/DE/BF/QA
  • Lingala spoken (EN, FR, NL st)
  • Writer-director Nelson Makengo
  • Assistant director Isaac Sahani Dato
  • Cinematography Nelson Makengo
  • Editing Inneke Van Waeyenberghe
  • Sound Moimi Wezam
  • Sound Design Franck Moka
  • Sound Edit  Laszlo Umbreit
  • Mix  Rémi Gérard
  • Producers Dada Kahindo and Rosa Spaliviero
  • Coproducers  Florian Schewe, Michel K. Zongo, Marie Logie, Samuel Feller
  • Production managers  Rosa Spaliviero, Juliette Hourçourigaray, Isaac Sahani Dato, Hélène Ballis

Darkness falls over Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and its 17 million inhabitants. It is just before Christmas and people are struggling to gain access to electric light. Kudi is mobilising the residents of his Kisenso neighbourhood to collect money for a new power cable. On Mount Mangengenge, a holy place overlooking the city, Pastor Gédéon delivers a sermon about the light of Christ as the path to life and truth. Davido is searching for a place to stay after his house was flooded by the Congo River. Together with other young men, he kills time by working out and dreams of a better future.
Tongo Saa is a sensitive portrait of the residents of Kinshasa as they face the challenges of life in an environment plagued by violence and coloured by the uncertainty of tomorrow.


Kinshasa et ses habitants vivent dans l'obscurité. Ils attendent et luttent pour avoir accès à la lumière. Entre espoir, déception et foi religieuse, Tongo Saa est un portrait subtil et fragmenté d'une population qui, malgré les défis, est sublimée par la beauté des nuits de Kinshasa.

Produced by

Twenty Nine Studio & Production
Mutotu Productions
Coproduction : Film Five, Diam Productions, Auguste Orts, Magellan Films, RTBF

Supported by

Bourse Brouillon d’un rêve documentaire SCAM, France

Atelier Dérives, Belgium

Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Belgium

Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Belgium

Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral de Belgique

Fonds Image de la Francophonie, France

Fonds Jeune Création Francophone, Burkina Faso

World Cinema Fund, Germany

IDFA Bertha Fund Classics, The Netherlands

IDFA Bertha Fund Europe, The Netherlands

Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, USA

The Atlas Workshops - Marrakech International Film Festival, Morocco

Hot Docs Blue lce Docs Fund, Canada

Doha Film Institute

Sales agent

Square Eyes Film