Viva Riva!

Viva Riva! is the first Congolese film I’ve seen.  It tells the story of Riva, a small-time operator and scumbag trying to outrace a bunch of other scumbags who want his MacGuffin.

The MacGuffin, in a Congolese twist, is a tanker-truck full of stolen gasoline.  Gasoline, you see, is in short supply, and prices are only going up.  Who wants it?  Why, the criminals from whom he stole it.  Who’s going to help him keep it or sell it?  Who’s going to try to take it away?  Who’s going to win?  Sit back, ladies and gentlemen, and enjoy the show.

Your enjoyment, I think, will depend on the degree to which you sympathize with Riva.  Unfortunately, I didn’t care for him one bit.  In fact, I found him odious in nearly every way, not only for the damage he did to himself (which is his business) but for the damage he did to everyone who cared about him and all of their families.  Additionally, he wasn’t charming or invitingly evil – he was just a scumbag, with scumbag tastes and scumbag plans.  I couldn’t even root for a good guy to put him in his place, as Viva Riva! is a film about people of varying degrees of badness.

That said, this is a professional film, one that could easily have been created by a more mature national production industry.  It provides a window into life in Kinsasha that most of us would not otherwise enjoy.  It moves briskly and earns its ending.  Viva Riva! did not work for me, but you might love it.