Rêve Kakudji

As a boy, Serge Kakudji always made a lot of noise, but even back then his mother noticed that there was a kind of beauty underneath all the racket. When Serge was seven, he saw an opera on TV, and from that moment on he had a mission: he simply had to become an opera singer. But how can you become an opera singer when you live in the slums of Lubumbasi in the DRC? Completely by chance, American opera singer Laura Claycomb discovered Serge’s singing talent and paid for him to study at a music school in Paris. There, he was confronted by prejudice, stereotyping and great expectations. Laura, who takes on the role of a kind of temporary mother, almost seems to attach more importance to Serge’s career than he does, even though Serge says in voice-over that he will settle for nothing less than to reach the absolute top as a countertenor. The camera observes Serge in marvelous scenes as he pushes his way through the white elitist jungle, where his talent is recognized but he is seen as an exotic phenomenon. As one opera director puts it, "His movements are somewhere in between Michael Jackson and something primitive." This wonderfully stylized, observational documentary offers an intimate window into the head of a young man caught between two worlds, who is trying, in fits and starts, to live his dream.