Benda Bilili!

Name: Benda Bilili!
Genre: Music, Documentary
Released: September 30, 2011
Duration: 85 min
Rating: 77

2011

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Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

National Geographic Cinema Ventures | Release Date: September 30, 2011 | PG-13

Summary: Benda Bilili! follows an unlikely group of musicians in Kinshasa, capital of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The band, Staff Benda Bilili—in English, “look beyond”—is a group of street musicians composed of four paraplegics and three able-bodied men. The core of the group is four singer/guitarists polio, who use customizedBenda Bilili! follows an unlikely group of musicians in Kinshasa, capital of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The band, Staff Benda Bilili—in English, “look beyond”—is a group of street musicians composed of four paraplegics and three able-bodied men. The core of the group is four singer/guitarists polio, who use customized tricycles to get around: Ricky, the eldest and a co-founding member of the band; Coco, the band’s composer and co-founding member with Ricky; Junana, the member most disabled by polio, yet the official choreographer; and Coude, a bass player and soprano singer. Joining them is a young and entirely acoustic rhythm section, led by Roger, a teenage prodigy on the satongé, a one-string guitar he designed and built himself out of a tin can. (National Geographic Cinema Ventures)… Expand

Director: Florent de La Tullaye and Renaud Barret

Genre(s): Music, Documentary

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 85 min

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Critic Reviews

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Oct 1, 2011

This unsentimental, smartly assembled film is equally attentive to the cacophony of African poverty and the balm of harmony provided by these pied pipers of hope. Read full review

David DeWitt

Sep 29, 2011

Benda Bilili! is brutally real, a document of willpower that shows not only the magic of transcendence - which may be fleeting - but also the transformation of aspiring to it, every struggling step of the way. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

Oct 6, 2011

Benda Bilili! earns its exclamation point. It's a feel-good movie that actually makes you feel good, a story that will have you shaking your head in astonishment and moving your feet to some unstoppable rhythms. Read full review

Duane Byrge

Sep 25, 2011

Most magically, if one were to listen to their music but not know anything about their heart-wrenching situation, their compositions sound as if they've come from the luckiest and happiest performers in the world. Read full review

Jennie Punter

Oct 13, 2011

An unabashed crowd-pleaser. Read full review

Jay Weissberg

Sep 25, 2011

Audiences will find the group's triumph inspiring. Read full review

David Fear

Sep 27, 2011

It may be petty to dismiss such a rags-to-much-better-rags story, but given how manipulatively constructed this music doc is, even in its rawest moments, you still leave feeling like you've been played. Read full review

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