Strand Releasing is proud to announce the release of FÉLICITÉ, the new film by award-winning French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent Alain Gomis, and the winner of the Silver Lion at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival. Set in Kinshasa, FÉLICITÉ - a selection of the 2017 New York Film Festival - follows a fiercely independent club singer whose life is thrown into turmoil when her teenage son is seriously injured. FÉLICITÉ is scheduled to open in New York on Friday, October 27th at The Quad Cinema followed by a national roll out.
Living her life in the chaotically vibrant Congolese capital of Kinshasa with a proud defiance, Félicité doesn't need marriage, a man, or even love to get by. But when her son is injured in a traffic accident, she must find a way to pay for his operation, and embarks on a double journey: through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. FÉLICITÉ is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine’s spiritual progress.
Woven into the fabric of the film is a soundtrack performed by the Congolese musical collective Kasaï Allstars (with arrangements by Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste), creating the sensation of the music being a secondary script that transports us through Félicité's journey.
Born and raised in Paris, director Alain Gomis studied art history and film at the Sorbonne where he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film. His debut feature, L’Afrance, won the Silver Leopard at the 2002 Locarno Film Festival; his second film, Andalucia was selected for the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days, and his third film, Tey, starring acclaimed New York poet-performer Saul Williams, was Senegal’s official selection for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. FÉLICITÉ is Mr. Gomis' fourth feature.
"Sensually complex….Congolese singer-turned-actress Véro Tshanda Beya proves entirely mesmerizing… grooving infectiously with dynamic real-life collective the Kasai Allstars… the diverse musical soundtrack charts Félicité’s shifting states of mind.” — Guy Lodge, Variety
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