Things of the Aimless Wanderer

An unusual African film with a powerful visual narrative style and an experimental electronic score. The Aimless Wanderer of the title is a white man making an African travelogue. He meets a local girl who soon disappears. Little by little, fear and paranoia overcome him. The latest film by Kivu Ruhorahoza is exceptional for several reasons, and not just because it is an African production. For example, instead of approaching all the funds and charities he could to complete the financing, he decided to start shooting straight away with limited support from an adventurous English producer. In terms of content, Things of the Aimless Wanderer challenges more than one politically correct opinion - and this is probably no coincidence. The film’s style also surprises, as one of the few African films showing such artistic originality that the word ‘experimental’ applies. Here too, the young Rwandan director goes his own way. The protagonist of Things of the Aimless Wanderer is a white man who meets a local girl on his travels through Africa. The girl disappears and the man decides to investigate. In the meantime, he completes a travel journal. The story seems to be retold in several variants; the relationship between the man and the girl is always highly uncomfortable, however.