Ben’imana

Ben’imana is a film by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo.

Marie-Clémentine developed her screenplay as part of the Lim – Less Is More programme in 2020.

BEN’IMANA is selected for the “Un Certain Regard” section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

SYNOPSIS

Rwanda, 2012. The country is emerging from a period of silence following the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, and people’s courts are being set up with the aim of bringing about justice and reconciliation.

Veneranda, a survivor, is convinced of the need for these trials. Despite the pressure, she organises discussion sessions between the victims and the families of the perpetrators. A form of therapy for some, an act of betrayal for others, these sessions of testimony rekindle and reveal the traumas that each person is trying to overcome in their own way.

The wounds of Veneranda’s past are reopened when she learns of her daughter’s unexpected pregnancy and the identity of the father. Veneranda must then confront her own contradictions and the darker aspects of her past.

Ben’imana discusses intergenerational trauma and the need to dismantle prejudices and resentments. The film’s characters, predominantly female, successively experience moments of happiness, chaos and darkness, in which love and hate, resentment and reconciliation intertwine. In doing so, they paint a portrait of Rwanda as it strives to rebuild itself following the 1994 Tutsi Genocide.