critics consensus

Félicité depicts a culture and a setting unfamiliar to many viewers, but its themes - and Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu's performance - transcend borders. Read critic reviews

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Félicité Photos

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Movie Info

Félicité is a Congolese singer who desperately needs money after her 14-year-old son Samo suffers a serious accident. She soon finds financial and emotional support from Tabu, one of the regulars in the bar where she performs.

Genre:

drama
Original Language:

Lingala
Director:

Alain Gomis
Producer:

Arnaud Dommerc, Oumar Sall, Alain Gomis
Writer:

Alain Gomis, Delphine Zingg, Olivier Loustau
Release Date (Theaters):

Oct 27, 2017 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Jan 18, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA):

$8.4K
Runtime:

2h 4m

Cast & Crew

Véro Tshanda Beya
Félicité

Papi Mpaka
Tabu

Gaetan Claudia
Samo

Nadine Ndebo
Hortense

Léon Makola
Patron Bar

Sylvie Kandala
Femme cour

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News & Interviews for Félicité

Suburbicon Is a Stale Satire

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Critic Reviews for Félicité

All Critics (46) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (1)

The meandering narrative has a lyrical quality consistent with the many musical numbers.

September 25, 2018 | Full Review…

Leah Pickett
Chicago Reader
Think High Noon set in Kinshasa and backed by a Congolese beat.

January 19, 2018 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Scott Marks
San Diego Reader
This heady trip into downtown Kinshasa is as magnetic, and enigmatic, as its forceful central character.

November 12, 2017 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Wendy Ide
Observer (UK)
A heroic, award-winning central performance from the Congolese actress Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu is reason alone to see this often gripping, occasionally infuriating French-language melodrama.

November 10, 2017 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Kevin Maher
Times (UK)
Beya ... arrives fully formed here as a figure of enormous dignity and warmth, a pillar of resilience who is nonetheless all-too-humanly susceptible to exhaustion, grief and despair.

November 9, 2017 | Full Review…

Justin Chang
Los Angeles Times
It's a film with seriousness and compassion, though a little lengthy and diffuse. Dramatic storm clouds gather and pass overhead without ever quite bursting into rain.

November 9, 2017 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
Félicité is not another downbeat film about Africa steeped in miserablist tendencies. Gomis and company don't lose the sight of happiness in the daily lives of its ordinary citizens.

July 17, 2020 | Full Review…

Dustin Chang
ScreenAnarchy
A Kinshasa-set hybrid of kitchen sink drama and dreamy musical.

May 8, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Daniel Barnes
Dare Daniel
With the newcomer Véro Mputu onboard, Gomis didn't restrain himself from sailing this boat with courage and emotion.

February 1, 2019 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Filipe Freitas
Always Good Movies
Félicité is an enlightening tale that details life in central Africa, set in a milieu of a cabaret singer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

December 4, 2018 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Rania Richardson
Film-Forward.com
With a brilliantly nuanced performance from Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu, simultaneously sullen, vivacious, coquettish, Félicité is the African riposte to the West's obsession with female portraits.

October 18, 2018 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Alexa Dalby
Dog and Wolf
Félicité might feel like two movies in one but both parts are ravishing, both unmissable.

October 17, 2018 | Rating: A | Full Review…

Murtada Elfadl
The Film Experience