Didy

Synopsis

Gaël was five when AIDS took his mother, Didy, a Tutsi poet living in Rwanda. His memories of her slowly faded beneath the chaos of civil war and genocide ravaging Burundi and Rwanda, eventually forcing him from Kinshasa to Geneva.

Thirty years later, he works up the courage to go back. By following down his aunts and the other women who knew Didy, Gaël pieces his family history back together across both countries. Reconnecting with them restarts a dialogue left unfinished for decades. Through shared history and collective memories, Didy’s portrait comes into focus alongside an entire generation of Rwandan women deeply affected by the 1994 Tutsi genocide.

Director Biography

Gaël Kamilindi, François-Xavier Destors

Gaël Kamilindi

Actor and member of the Comédie Française since 2017. In 2024, he co-directed the documentary feature Didy with François-Xavier Destors. His short film debut won the Teddy Award at the 2026 Berlinale.

François-Xavier Destors

Writer and director of historical and political documentaries, rooted in places of memory and conflict zones. Didy is his fourth feature-length documentary.

Credits

Cinematography / Sinematografi

Eva Sehet

Editing / Kurgu

Jean Reusser

Sound / Ses

Adrien Kessler, Masaki Hatsui, Eugène Safali, Richard Malikonge, Didier Nors, Erik Menard

Production / Yapım

Adok Films, Compagnie des Phares et Balises, Iyugi Productions