MÉTISSES - CINQ FEMMES CONTRE UN CRIME D’ÉTAT (UPROOTED – FIVE WOMEN AGAINST A COLONIAL CRIME)
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They had remained silent their entire lives. But now Léa, Noëlle, Monique, Simone, and Marie-José have decided to break that silence and hold the Belgian state accountable for the crimes committed against them during the colonial era in the Congo. All five women were born to Black mothers and white fathers. Between the ages of two and five, they were taken from their mothers and placed in orphanages—solely because of their heritage. Before the Court of Appeals, they are fighting for official recognition of a policy of systematic child abductions. Between court hearings, the women reflect on the memories of their stolen childhoods.
Cooperation: Deutsch-Kongolesisches Jugendinstitut und Lux Mwinda!
MÉTISSES - CINQ FEMMES CONTRE UN CRIME D’ÉTAT (UPROOTED – FIVE WOMEN AGAINST A COLONIAL CRIME) Direction: Quentin Noirfalisse, Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo, DCP, OmeU, 86 min
Guests
Quentin Noirfalisse is a filmmaker, producer at Dancing Dog Productions, journalist, and co-founder of Médor, an independent Belgian magazine dedicated to investigative journalism and narrative reporting. His documentaries include LE MINISTRE DES POUBELLES, selected for DOK Leipzig and FESPACO in 2017, COBALT, L’ENVERS DU RÊVE ÉLECTRIQUE, selected for Fipadoc in 2022, and LUMUMBA, LE RETOUR D’UN HÉROS (2023). In 2025, he co-directed MÉTISSES – CINQ FEMMES CONTRE UN CRIME D’ÉTAT with Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo. Quentin’s work explores decolonial issues, the environmental impact of industry, corporate responsibility, and human rights.
Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo is a director, animator, and dancer. His graduation film THE HEART IS A METRONOME won the Best First Film Award at the 2008 Hiroshima International Animation Festival. Drawing was his first passion, but dance has always shaped his artistic language. In 2014, he wrote and directed THE SENSE OF TOUCH, a film combining the aesthetics of movement and sign language, selected in over 60 festivals and awarded 22 international prizes. In 2018, he brought James Brown and Solomon Burke back to life in MAKE IT SOUL. With the documentary UPROOTED – FIVE WOMEN AGAINST A COLONIAL CRIME, co-directed with Quentin Noirfalisse, he once again reveals, with subtlety, his singular visual style, infused with his art of animation.