Matamata & Pilipili

In the fifties a Belgian missionary and film lover made a series of films around the comical characters Matamata and Pilipili. This duo became the African answer to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, to the utter delight of Congolese audiences. And yet the films were never shown outside the country‘s borders. When Congo became independent in 1960 and changed into Zaire, the films were forgotten. The Belgian filmmaker Tristan Bourlard recently discovered the original negatives of the Matamata and Pilipili films in Belgium. Almost fifty years after their creation Bourlard put the characters back on the screen. His documentary tells the remarkable story of a series of forgotten gems.