Welket Bungué born in Guinea-Bissau in 1988, from Balanta ethnics, is a Berlin based actor and director. His cross-cultural education, from Africa, Europe, and Brazil, made himself a cross-national multitalented artist.
He is co-founder of the production company KUSSA, holds a degree in Theater Acting (ESTC / Lisbon) and a postgraduate degree in Performance Art (UniRio / Brazil). Bungué is an artist featured by the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art (Berlin), and since 2021 his films are part of the institution’s collection.
Welket's artwork is grounded in anti-colonial and Afro-diasporic practices to generate self-empowerment and healing capacities. His films compose an ecosystem of creative freedom, an invitation to cast off from old hardened narratives and into a space of thinking, resilience, and cross- border identity. Like a body in transit, his commitment to the storytelling art holds the belif of a future in which we can dialogue and find one another.
Bungué's films have circulated internationally through numerous film festivals such as Berlinale, ABFF (USA), Africlap (France), Zanzibar IFF, Afrikamera (Berlin), BFI London and Sheffield DocFest (UK), IndieLisboa, DocLisboa, Curta Cinema IFF (RJ, Brazil), as well as the Stockholm Dansfilmfestival. Welket repertoire on filmmaking reunites more than 25 creations, including the short film titles ‘Calling Cabral’ (2022), ‘Mudança’ (2020), ‘Intervenção Jah’ (2019), ‘I am Not Pilatus' (2019), ‘Arriaga' (2019) and ‘Bastien' (2016).
In 2020 Welket won the "MAAT Grand Prize - FUSO Intl. Festival of Video Art of Lisbon" with his film 'Metalheart', also starred Franz Biberkopf in 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' (Berlinale Official Comp. 2020), directed by Burhan Qurbani, which lead him to a nomination as “Best Male Lead” at the LOLA awards of the German Film Academy (Deutscher Filmpreis), and grant him a “Aluminum Horse Prize” for “Best Actor” at the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival. In 2021, he won the 'Cinema Industry Prestige Award' at the 25th RDP Africa - Prestige Award Ceremony (Portugal).
Welket Bungué has a strong connection with the Berlinale: not only was ‚Letters From War‘ (2016), ’Joaquim’ (2017), and ’Berlin Alexanderplatz’ (2020) celebrated at its world premiere in the official competition, in 2021 Bungué was invited to become a Berlinale Talent where he presented a masterclass “In Contact: The Politics of Moving Bodies” moderated by Natscha Noak. In the same year he did is debut as a director at the Berlinale Forum Expanded with the world premiere of its short film ‘Mudança'.
Welket is part of the main cast of the new film from David Cronenberg, 'Crimes of the Future' (Cannes IFF 2022), among the actors Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart.
In June 2022 Welket released his first book 'Corpo Periférico' on the Amazon platform, it is an autobiographical essay on auteur filmmaking based on the eponymous concept of "self-portraying cinema".