Angoulême 2026 – day 2: Congo boy, Robert Charlebois, The Quadrature of Others, Virginie Ledoyen

Every day, a look back at the highlights of the 19th edition of the French-speaking film festival.

Film of the day: Congo boy by Rafiki Fariala

The word end appears on the screen, giving way to thunderous applause that seems like it will never end. With the projection of Congo boythe Angoulême festival undeniably experienced its first great emotional peak yesterday. After Cannes where we discovered him in the Un Certain Regard section, the Biarritz and Sarajevo festivals where he left each time covered with awards. And he places himself among the major contenders for that of the public here.

Congo boy tells the story of Robert who, at 17, dreams of a career in music. But he lives neither in the right place nor at the right time. Because in Bangui, as throughout the Central African Republic, daily life is first and foremost a question of survival while the civil war rages. And even more so for this young Congolese who took refuge there with his family, regularly sent back to his origins and struggling with an endless administrative imbroglio to obtain their papers. So how do you make your dream come true when you find yourself having to take care of your four younger brothers and sisters alone and your father – a former nurse – begs you to study medicine to change the destiny of the whole family?

This is what this first feature film by Rafiki Fariala tells us, discovered in 2023 with the documentary We students!. An autobiographical story (born in Congo, Fariala arrived in the Central African Republic in 1997 with his family at the age of three months) which manages in the same gesture to embrace the violence of Robert’s daily life and the persistence, against all odds, of the light at the end of this winding path. Thanks to a musical competition which will become his only hope to escape his sad fate.

By refusing all miserabilism without looking away, Rafiki Fariala finds the right tone, through his visual vivacity, the panache with which he orchestrates the rap battles in style. 8 miles. And it reveals a phenomenal actor, Bradley Fiomona, discovered by wild casting, who had never even thought of one day doing cinema and with whom the camera instantly fell in love.

In theaters November 25

Today’s documentary: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Charlebois by Louis-Philippe Eno

The title doesn’t lie. Robert Charlebois, the interpreter of so many songs that have spanned the decades, Lindbergh has I will come back to Montreal really didn’t have an existence like the others. And the great success of Louis-Philippe Eno is to have been able to embrace this singularity. Not being content with a compilation of concert extracts and behind-the-scenes archive images but mixing them with animation and scenes staged especially for the occasion.

Content and form therefore resonate here permanently and offer a perfect setting for the delicious confidences of Charlebois on the secrets of creating his standards – starting with his most beautiful diamond, Ordinary (brought up to date in Aline de Lemercier) – that on the mishap he experienced on the set ofA genius, two partners, a bell where he came close to being fired by Sergio Leone.

Charlebois is a regular at Angoulême, he who owes to his co-general delegate Marie-France Brière both his first Olympia which launched his career in France and the meeting with his wife exactly half a century ago. He couldn’t have dreamed of a better birthday present. And us too.

Undetermined exit

Today’s casting: the actors of The Squaring of Others

We complain too often about always seeing the same faces on the big screen not to salute Maxime Potherat’s gesture here. Their names are Charlie Bruneau Pouilloux, Axelle Huet, Anne Paris, Benoît Moret, Paul Jeanson, Nicolas Martinez, Julia Jacovella and Agnès Ramy. None of them had had the chance until now to be at the top of the bill on the big screen. And The Squaring of Others allows them, for the first time. And this, in a collective gesture which also tells the genesis of this first feature film and gives all its singularity to what could otherwise be nothing more than a portrait of more than a group of friends in the grip of a midlife crisis.

Because we quickly perceive that this story was constructed with each of them or more precisely with the particular look that the filmmaker had on each of them. Result ? A collective work which allows us to admire a host of individuals and their ability to give depth, breath, soul to classic situations (breakup in love, love at first sight, friendships undermined by secrets that are increasingly impossible to keep…) to make them in turn endearing, moving, hilarious. Refreshing.

Released in March 2027

Video of the day: Virginie Ledoyen, heroine of Red and black

In this new series adaptation of Stendhal’s masterpiece, the actress plays – after Danielle Darrieux, Micheline Prelse or even Carole Bouquet in previous versions – Louise de Rênal, whose heart burns for Julien Sorel (Victor Belmondo). And she told us about her relationship with the costumes for the creation of this character.

Available on France.tv