NYFF Review: ‘Félicité’

Félicité is the fourth feature-length film from French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis. It focuses on the everyday life of the titular Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu), a woman who sings at a popular nightclub in her hometown of Kinshasa. Things take a turn for the worse when her son Samo (Gaetan Claudia) is critically injured in a motorcycle accident and leaves her at her wits end at what to do in order to pay for the expensive medical treatment needed to save his life.

Félicité is a strong proud woman and asking for help from her family and friends – and even strangers – isn’t something that she wants to do. She is already frustrated at the way that men ogle her and harass her when she’s singing, so having to go out there and beg people to help her pay for her son’s treatment is demeaning on a different level but still enough that it eats up at her.

It’s ironic that she ends up turning to Tabu (Papi Mpaka), a drunk attendee of the club that she sings at, who ends up being the one person there for her and a possible helping hand in her dire circumstance. Their relationship is unusual and tumultuous at best but Félicité finds room for him in her life as she has no other option and throughout the film we slowly see them find a way to make it all work out.

This is more or less the plot in Gomis’ film, which just a bit over two hours feels like it could’ve benefited from a tighter cut. There are some experimental shots and dream sequences which are meant to display how lost and fearful she is in these moments but they don’t quite work in the way that the director intended. He does a good job of capturing the atmosphere and living conditions of Kinshasa and there are some nicely shot music sequences of both Félicité in the nightclub as well as a more classical setting with the real-life Kinshasa-based Kasai Allstars music collective.

The film is held up by a strong commanding performance on screen by Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu who is every bit as strong as the character that she portrays. Her performance is what holds the film together, which would have crumbled in the hands of a weaker actress or performance. Unfortunately, the film itself isn’t directed with enough of confidence or tight storytelling to totally pull the audience in and keep their attention as much as I would’ve liked. There are some moments here for sure, but they’re too few and far between to make this more of a commanding viewing experience.

Rating: 5.8/10