Three minutes that will wreck your understanding of childhood.
Direction
Nelki and Maene weaponize brevity. Every frame calculated.
Editing
Thunder-as-structure. Sound and image married in violence.
Cinematography
Children framed as witnesses, not subjects. Devastating.
Director
Leo Nelki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of a wave of urgent Congolese cinema confronting Western audiences with the DRC's ongoing instability — not as news headline, as lived rhythm.
The title 'APA' references a Lingala word echoing through the short — its meaning shifts contextually between 'father,' 'authority,' and 'colonial presence.'
US
