Kinshasa Symphony

Germany 2009
Claus Wischmann & Martin Baer
95’

Berlin Film Festival-Berlinale 2011, In Competition at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam-IDFA 2010

Kinshasa Symphony, the real-life struggles of a 200-member orchestral outfit from Kongo, is sure to knock you off your feet. Starting each and every day with endless hours of manual labour, these natural born musicians still manage to wrap up their shift with a hop and a skip – even if they have to replace their violin strings with bicycle brake cables. Don’t be surprised if by the end of the film you start making out African beats in Beethoven concertos. Who knows, maybe that’s just what he had in mind!