1992 ‘Gito, l'ingrat’ Directed by Léonce Ngabo
Back home in Bujumbura with a Parisian diploma in his pocket and expecting to walk into a civil service job, Gito finds himself both unemployed and caught between two women: his current French girlfriend Christine and his local old flame Flora.
Though I am certain this film had some commentary in it on colonialism, race, and Burundian culture. There seems to be an understanding in the film of how things work, how people interact, how people make things happen in business, on the street, in the country. This window into Burundi suggests a cultural crossroads and a gulf of communication that can be found in many places. What stands out to me about this film is something more fundamental, and that is the idea of coming back to your hometown after college and finding it to be so strange, so ill-fitting.
The film suggests that this is a form of arrogance, and that's true enough. It's ingratitude, as the title suggests,…
My own private "a movie for each country" quest
Country 31: Burundi
I watched this movie without subtitles, because I couldn't find any. And I don't speak french so I had to pick up whatever I could. Basically, Gito is one of the lucky ones who managed to get out of Burundi to study at an european university. When he graduates he has to leave his girlfriend and come back to Bujumbura, where he wears the same yellow tux everyday, and eventually learns that his vanity and arrogance will come back to bite him in the ass.
The movie is short but not particularly engaging. The most interesting scenes for me were when his french girlfriend comes to visit and…
I loved this. It's basically a French-style sex comedy, but from an African perspective. It also works as a window into post-colonial issues, specifically Belgian and French. Young African men go study in these former colonial empires and return home with contradictory values. How to reconcile a Western education with rural family values?
A brief introduction shows us Gito preparing for his return to Burundi, having completed his graduate studies. He is a walking stereotype of the hustling African, selling tools and material in the open-air markets of Paris. He hangs out in intellectual café's showing off his French girlfriend to his African expatriate friends.
Back in Burundi, he meets an old flame and rekindles their childhood love. But his…
World Scavenger Hunt: #38 Burundi
My French is a bit rusty at the moment, but I get most of the film, which I found enjoyable until the very end, which I found a bit odd. It is not particularly memorable in any way, but it definitely captures the cultural clash and class difference very well. Also, the poster is great, and Gito has some nice yellow pants.
(part of the CineWorldTrip)
28. Burundi
After getting his degree in Paris, Gito decides to return to his homeland Burundi. In Paris he made a living as a taylor, bur he's pretty sure his new degree will get him a high post in the Burundi government, maybe even a cabinet position. His girlfriend wants to come too, but he asks her to wait until he is set up, at which moment he will send for her.
Dressed to the max, cash in hand, and with a brand new audiovideo system in his luggage to impress friends and family, he arrives in Burundi. But things are not going as planned. He can't get a job, soon can't pay his hotel bills…
A Journey Through African National Cinemas
While I appreciate what it was going for, I ultimately found Gito the Ungrateful a little too on the nose and it ultimately left me feeling kind of indifferent towards everything I watched in the last 90 minutes. At its core, it's a film about how arrogance drives a wedge in one's relationship with others and how you shouldn't fixate your expectations towards having it one way and only that one way. Yet our protagonist (if you could call him that), Gito, doesn't go through anything that changes his outlook or behaviour on life, at least not explicitly. The only thing that really changes by the end is that he stops being so stubborn…
Somewhat resembling the satiric tone of movies like Xala, this approaches the subject of post-colonialism in much more optimistic ways. The movie starts with Gito going back to his native Burundi after getting a law degree in Paris, which he worked hard to get with an expectation that it would guarantee a cushy government job with good money and status when he returns home. His assumption of grandeur that would come with his turn in France clashes with the emancipated community he returns to, which fuels the mildly amusing comedy.
It's questionable if it is enough to keep it from being a bit one-note and milking that for more than it's worth. The protagonist's relentless refusal to even miss a step as things are obviously not working out is contagious though. He is awful, but there's something about Joseph Kumbela's performance that makes you wish that he will learn more than you wish him to fail.
Around the Letterboxd World - Year 2 [2021] |
Burundi 🇧🇮
Offering a statement on the poisonous effect of hubris, Léonce Ngabo’s feature is one with a lot to say but does so in the most rudimentary of ways, lacking compelling characters nor narrative as Joseph’s Kumbela must let go of his own ego upon his return to his home country.
