This Cannes hit follows a 17-year-old Robert, played by Bradley Fiomona, who is living in Bangui in the war-torn Central African Republic. He is fiercely holding together his family and trying to finish high school, while despite having the cards stacked against him, not letting go of his musical dreams, and his sense of wonder, possibility and fun.
Congo Boy is Fiomona’s first time on screen, and he captivates portraying the desperate twists and turns of this young man’s life, winning Best Actor in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes Film Festival 2026.
Having been already displaced from the Congo, civil war is the backdrop of the film, and the reason Robert finds himself in charge of his younger siblings, as both his parents are in prison for not having the right paperwork and are being held as illegal immigrants. Everyday life for Robert is a political and financial minefield, from managing his relationships with his parents by visiting them in prison, to trying to provide for his brothers and sisters, but it is in music that we find the real teenage Robert and his escape hatch. He is sneaking out to find venues to perform in, and while he’s having to negotiate checkpoints and violent militias to get to them, once inside the clubs, we see a young person with a talent and a drive to reach for the stars.
Congo Boy is based on the director Rafiki Fariala’s own story and his first feature film. Born in 1997 in Uvira, Kivu (DRC), Fariala Alolea Albert arrived as a young child in the Central African Republic, where his parents had sought refuge due to the war that was ravaging the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Screened at Sydney Film Festival 2026
Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2026 in Un Certain Regard, Winner BEST ACTOR – UN CERTAIN REGARD 2026
Directed by Rafiki Fariala
Written by Rafiki Fariala, Tommy Baron, Boris Lojkine
Produced by Boris Lojkine, Elvis Sabin Ngaïbino, Daniele Incalcaterra
Co- Producers Caroline Nataf, Dieudo Hamadi, Marco Bechis
Cinematography Adrien Lallau
Editor César Simonot
Score By Rafiki Fariala, Lillo Morealle
Starring Bradley Fiomona, Christy Djomanda Louba, Pétruche Mbomba, Rosiana Kotozia, Gloria Ambacko, Dieufera Sana, Carlos Suffisant Djihoro, David Ningando, Hubert Ngbolo, Zara Lucie Dobo, Bossoro-Kiabale, Berthe Ngbolo
“I’m a Congolese refugee who came to the Central African Republic as a child,” said Fariala. “Congo Boy is my story told through fiction— through the character of Robert, played by Bradley Fiomona. It’s the story of the year my parents went to prison—the year I found myself alone with four younger siblings and forced to find a way to survive. The year music became my lifeline. Everything that happens in the film really happened to me.”
He went on to explain how his parents ended up in prison. “When they saw things in the country going south, my parents— who had already fled the war in Congo—wanted to leave, but didn’t have papers,” said Fariala. “The UNHCR was unwilling to issue them travel documents, so they bought false papers, got caught, and were sent to prison. All they wanted was to escape the war and keep their family safe.”
“I was a singer before I was a filmmaker—music has always been a part of my life,” said Fariala. “I sing when I’m happy, and I sing when I’m sad, too. In Congo Boy, as in real life, music lets me breathe, lets me smile. Music saved me.”
“For the last song, I searched for a long time to find something that matched the film. I wrote “Mama ti kondo”—“La Mère Poule”— in Brittany, near the end of writing the screenplay. I was swimming in the sea and found myself humming a tune. That evening, I wrote the lyrics in one go and sent them to my co-writers. I knew the film had to end with a tribute to the Central African Republic—my adoptive country, where I grew up, my mère poule.”
What was clearly a very dynamic group of people and projects led to the formation of the film school CinéBangui in 2020. It only lasted a couple of years and only trained one cohort – but that gave twenty-five young Central Africans a grounding in the filmmaking trades : cinematography, sound, editing, production, and screenwriting. Many of these graduates appear in the credits of Congo Boy. This new generation of filmmakers have made their mark in the film world, which is extraordinary for a country that had no movie theaters, no film production companies, no trained technicians, and no directors.
When asked what he would like audiences to take away from the film, Fariala said, “When people talk about refugees, they usually think of people coming to seek asylum in Europe. But there are also hundreds of thousands of refugees who leave one African country for another. That’s the reality for many Congolese, for example. I’m a refugee myself, and I’d like people to look at young refugees differently.”
“Refugees aren’t beggars. Robert is a young man fighting for his family—a true soldier of life. But more than that: a refugee can have dreams. That’s what I want people to take away from Robert’s story. War, the madness of this world, means that many young refugees can’t fulfill their dreams the way other young people around the world can. That’s what I lived through, and what I want to share—which is why, even though the film is sometimes hard to watch, it moves toward the light. It carries hope.”
