Minimals in a Titanic World
Philibert Aimé
Rwanda, Germany, Cameroon. 2024. 81 min

Let off with a warning for aggression, dancer and aspiring musician Anita returns from prison to perform at her bar, where she learns about the sudden death of her boyfriend, Serge. While close friends process the shock, Anita finds solace in the company of Serge’s roommate, Shema. As she wrestles with the difficult final memories of her boyfriend, Anita must negotiate her bond with Shema while trying to break out on her own as an independent songwriter. Set in current-day Kigali, Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo’s radiant, richly detailed feature debut trains its attention on a generation of upwardly mobile youth grappling with anxieties around love, death and self-actualization. With grace and generosity, he allows his characters to float about in a state of flux, not knowing what they want or can dare to. Despite our intimacy with her dreams and frustrations, Anita retains her essential spiritual mystery, her response to grief and bereavement never explained away. With keen attention to colours, textures, music and moods, Minimals in a Titanic World crafts an emotionally resonant portrait of friendship frayed by the weight of loss.

PHILIBERT AIMÉ SHARANGABO

Mbabazi Sharangabo Philbert Aimé graduated from the Haute École d’Art et de Design in Geneva with a B.A. in film department in 2017. He has directed a dozen short films, including I Got My Things And Left, which won the Grand Prix at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in 2019, the Best Short Film Award at the Prague Short Film Festival in 2020 and a Special Jury Mention in competition at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. The film has been screened at over 30 festivals, including IFF Rotterdam, FIFF Namur, Go Short Nijmegen, London Short Film Festival, Indie Lisboa and ISFF Hamburg, among others.

His school shorts The Liberators and Versus have been screened at festivals such as Vision du Réel Nyon, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Uppsala, Tampere and the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.
He was part of the Locarno Filmmakers Academy in 2019, the Berlinale Talents in 2020 and the Torino Script Lab in 2020. Mbabazi Sharangabo lives in Rwanda, where he runs Imitana Productions, a Rwanda-based film production company that produces his work and that of Kigali’s vibrant young film scene. The ISFF in Oberhausen devoted a retrospective to his work this year. Minimals In A Titanic World is his first feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY

2022 – TWIN LAKES HAVEN
2018 – I GOT MY THINGS AND LEFT
2017 – KEZA LYN
2016 – VERSUS
2017 – THE LIBERATORS
2012 – RUHAGO/ DESTINY FM

PRESS KIT

POSTER

CONTACT

ines.grhrw@gmail.com

Director & Screenwriter Mbabazi Sharangabo Philbert Aime DOP Ishimwe Samuel & Nasser Naizi Editor Kivu Ruhorahoza Production Designer Munyana Carine Sound Nshimiyimana Jean Bosco Music Amin Goudarzi & Weya Viatora Producers Ishimwe Karemangingo Mbabazi Sharangabo Philbert Aime Ryumugabe Remy Dida Nibagwire Alexander Wadouh Roxana Richters Augustine Moukodi Cast Aline Amike Niyigena “Rwasibo Joe” Jean Pierre Ganza Moise Nasser Makala Alice Amike