Mamadi Indoka

• Name — Mamadi Indoka • Born — 1976 • Birthplace — Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo • Occupation — Director and screenwriter

Indoka first encountered the world of cinema in 2002 with a short film shown in Madrid and decided to take up the practice of the seventh art. He studied cinema in Canada and the United States, where he became a director and screenwriter. In 2005, he wrote and directed his first short, Une nuit d'enfer (A Night of Hell). In 2006, he wrote and directed another short, La Beauté de la mort (The Beauty of Death), then, in 2007, directed his first full-length feature, 32 ans après (32 Years After), written by Sebastiao Ndombasi. This film told the story of a man who returns to Angola 32 years after having fled war there, and is treated like a foreigner. In 2008, he wrote and directed the documentary La Pêche artisanale (Artisanal Fishing), and in 2010, he directed two shorts: Le Sida (AIDS), written by Lionel Mwedi Malila, and Victime (Victim) which he wrote himself. In 2010 he filmed his second full-length feature, L'héritage envahi (The Invaded Heritage), written and directed by Mamadi Indoka with the support of Congo Films Productions, his production company. This second feature told the story of a heinous crime, an entire family murdered by a trusted bodyguard, who spared only an infant. He abandoned the child in a forest, certain it would die of natural causes. But years later the child, now a grown man, sets outs out to seek revenge. This may have been the earliest Congolese thriller, since it came out a year before Viva Riva!.