Rachel Mwanza

Rachel Mwanza (2014)

Rachel Mwanza (born around 1997 ) is an actress from the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The amateur actress gained fame through her first film role in the Canadian feature film Rebelle (2012).

biography

Rachel Mwanza grew up with five siblings under difficult circumstances. Her parents separated and left the family. As a result, the neglected children were taken in by their grandmother, who was unemployed and made a living selling small items. The grandmother could not feed all of her grandchildren, which is why she rejected the older children, including Mwanza. The girl then sold nuts on the street. Mwanza later came to an orphanage - where she encountered similarly difficult circumstances - and lived with a friend who she helped with the household.

Mwanza was discovered by an agent searching for street children from Kinshasa to cast the Canadian film Rebelle , the second feature- length film production in the Congo in the past twenty years. Director Kim Nguyen said he spent ten years working on the script, which focuses on a child soldier from Africa. Although Mwanza could not read and had not attended school, she got the female lead of Komona, which she portrayed between the ages of twelve and 14 years. As a wage she received 500 euros as well as money for attending school. However, the money was embezzled by Mwanza's grandmother, which was only noticed when the film team returned to Africa to re-shoot. It was then arranged that Mwanza could attend school and learn to read. The film team would later refer to her as her real family.

Rebelle premiered in 2012 as part of the competition at the 62nd Berlin Film Festival, where Mwanza was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Film Festival. The competition jury around the British director Mike Leigh the 15-year-old had preference over well-known actresses such as the German Nina Hoss ( Barbara ), the Austrian Birgit Minichmayr ( Grace ) or the French Léa Seydoux ( Farewell, my Queen! And Winter Thief ) given. Mwanza is the first African actress to triumph in Berlin. In late April 2012, she was also awarded the Actor Award of the New York Tribeca Film Festival , while Rebelle was awarded the Grand Prize for Best Picture. According to the jury's statement, Mwanza “lived” her role to the full, there were “no limits to her breathtaking performance, no distance between the actress and the unforgettable character Komona” .

Rachel Mwanza lives in Kinshasa and speaks Lingála .

Filmography

• 2012: rebel

Awards

• 2012: Best Actor Award of the Berlin International Film Festival for Rebelle
• 2012: Tribeca Film Festival Actor Award for Rebels

Web links

• Datasheet for Rebelle at berlinale.de
• New film shows African conflict through eyes of girl at in2eastafrica.net, February 17, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Video of the Berlinale press conference, February 17, 2012 (7:00 p.m. ff .; accessed on February 18, 2012).
2. ^ Video of the Berlinale press conference, February 17, 2012 (43:00 min ff .; accessed on February 18, 2012).
3. ^ Rodek, Hanns-Georg: Golden Bear for Film with Real Criminals at welt.de, February 18, 2012 (accessed on February 19, 2012).
4. ↑ McCracken, Kristin: Awards Announced: 2012 Tribeca Film Festival ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at tribecafilm.com, April 26, 2012 (accessed July 7, 2012).