Congo in Four Acts plot
Four penetrating cinéma vérité reports paint a poignant picture of the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Ladies in Waiting" depicts the bureaucracy surrounding the waiting room of a hospital maternity ward, where the often single women are held because they cannot afford to pay. "Kinshasa Symphony" shows the slums of the capital Kinshasa, where the living conditions are downright appalling. Poverty, overpopulation, pollution, flooding and threatening epidemics determine daily existence. "Zero Tolerance" follows a 'Sexual Violence Unit', which has to do with raping teenage boys without conscience and hysterical men who are afraid of witchcraft. The perpetrators often get away with it, the victims never. "After the Mine" is a trip to the countryside, where the inhabitants are even poorer if possible and also have to deal with heavily poisoned rocky ground, which they will have to claw in to dig for gravel.