Christian Nyampeta

Sometimes It Was Beautiful

The film Sometimes It Was Beautiful by Christian Nyampeta poetically addresses the systemic conditions leading and emerging from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which had lasting and profound effects on Rwanda and neighbouring countries like Congo. The divergent opinions of the characters, as well as suggestive gestures, settings, and marks inscribed in the landscape highlight the different approaches in addressing the slow violence linked to the enduring impact of colonialism and imperialism, the pursuit of knowledge, and the conservation of heritage, culture, and object repatriation.

Structured into six chapters, the film imagines a meeting between improbable friends and interlaces dialogues, with choreography of dancers, places and objects. The friends include politician Yasser Arafat, postcolonial theorist Leela Gandhi, human rights activist Rigoberta Menchú, politician Robert Mugabe, playwright Wole Soyinka, and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. Together, they gather to watch In the Footsteps of the Witch Doctor, one of the six films by the Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist that he made in or about Congo between 1948 and 1952. They share interests and concerns, participate in group discussions and activities, and visit new places, such as the Stockholm’s Museum of Ethnography. 

Through the playful and protective shield of fiction, Nyampeta’s nuanced and philosophical approach to issues of systematic violence and colonialism adds complexity and deepens our understanding of the current moment and its relationship to history. In this increasingly polarized world, his long-term investment in creating meaningful communication to connect isolated communities has become more urgent than ever.