BIG FISH - Rumba Rwandaise

On 23 May 2023, the Belgian Embassy in Kigali delivered its decision: for the second time, Ms Josée Umutoni’s application for a short-stay Schengen short-term visa was rejected. Three days after the deadline for response set by the authority itself, the plan for Ms Umutoni to land at Berlin Brandenburg Airport at 2 pm on Friday, 26 May, was foiled. A fortnight had been planned with filming days in Berlin and Brussels to shoot scenes in which she would interact with local producers and manufacturers, chefs and restaurant owners, exchanging ideas about food and cooking, culinary traditions and contemporary gastronomy. Not least, a reunion with old friends was envisaged, ‘I have many friends in Matonge, when I will come there, I will be treated like a queen,’ she said, and finally, a visit of her son, who has lived in Belgium since the age of seven and whom she has not been able to visit ever since, should also have been captured. Half of the film that could not be realised on the ground that ‘there are reasonable doubts as to your intention to leave the territory of the Member States before the expire of the visa.’
Europe had never been a dream for Josée Umutoni, born in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. She is firmly rooted in Kigali, where she lives surrounded by her four daughters and manages the nine employees of her restaurant ‘Chez Mère Josée Nganda Na Biso,’ where she serves Congolese and Rwandan specialities to a sworn community of Congolese expatriates and all other connoisseurs. Her restaurant is a place where people come together to eat, drink and enjoy cultural exchange through their stomachs and ears while listening to Congolese rumba concerts that Josée is organizing regularly. A two-week visit to Europe, she said, would be enough.
The idea that she should also come to Europe to shoot more scenes only arose during the shooting days in Rwanda in January 2023, while Josée was captured in her everyday environment. At this point, the project was still in a theoretical stage, as it was set at short notice, and there was inherent uncertainty as to whether someone who would be suitable for the narrative framework but also willing to give insight into their personal world could be found. It was not until the last shooting day that the idea started to unfold its potential of transforming into a tangible reality. It became a vital aspect for the materialisation of the film’s ethos: to foster mutual exchange through food, create a collaborative space of co-engagement, reciprocate the received hospitality, and offer insights into one’s culture and self. If the project was to be based on cooperation, each production member had to give equal insight into their lives because only then would this cinematic approach be able to redeem itself in practice. Nothing should hinder this project of a trip to Europe for the Rwandan citizen Josée Umutoni, as EU citizens can issue a personal invitation to non-EU citizens like Josée and simplify the visa procedure.
After returning to Europe, the necessary steps were taken. A personal letter delineated the project plan and provided assurance that after the initial three-night hotel accommodation, a private homestay was envisaged, and the impending shooting schedule was outlined. The first visa application was rejected on 9 March 2023, whereby it was not so much the rejection itself that triggered a sense of powerlessness but rather the subsequent apparent disinterest and discomfort of the organisations I had asked for support. I had hoped that an official letter from a cultural institution of an EU government could counter the authorities’ accusation. It would have been sufficient to certify the existence of the project, which I saw as an essential mandate of these institutions in the first place. None of the inquired institutions was willing to pursue an acknowledgement of the project, despite the evidence provided. I was told that writing such a letter would not be possible if the respective institution had not been involved in the production itself. Retrospective participation would also not be possible.
To bolster the second visa application, the request was accompanied by a letter of support issued by the director of the master’s programme ‘Applied Human Rights’ at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, a storyboard, a film trailer, a detailed project proposal and two letters of introduction, the outcome of which was nothing less than disappointing. Although the legitimacy of the project was no longer under scrutiny, the intertwining of private and professional motives was the new area of concern for the Belgian authorities. This entanglement of the private and the professional is embedded in the project’s logic and, therefore, cannot be resolved quickly. However, most inevitably was the insinuation that Josée’s intention to return to Rwanda was to be doubted. Floundered and defeated by the overpowering bureaucratic system in which even the last attempts to reach someone at the end of a telephone line ended either in nothingness, unwillingness or being forwarded to a never-answered e-mail box.
This bureaucratic situation is exacerbated not least by the fact that all visa applications for almost all EU countries, including Germany, are processed through the Belgian authorities, creating additional language and accountability barriers. ‘May God help us!’ Josée wrote, and her words echoed in my head as a last plea.
Initially, the project was conceived as an audio-visual work in which food was to be explored as an essential factor in the constitution of the individual but also of communities in which the film, in particular, was to serve as proof and model for this very perspective on the humane. The limits of this undertaking were revealed at the border regime of Europe. At present, there is no further room for manoeuvre because it will not be possible for Ms Josée Umutoni to enter Europe until the project is over. Nevertheless, overcoming this hurdle has become a mission that transcends this project. I have committed to her to advocate for her, intending to enable her to travel. In the steadfast belief that this project can soon find enough support and allies to realise this ambition, I have intentionally chosen to write with an optimistic view towards the outcome of this project and to re-write its current ending.