Following the exploits of a Congolese gasoline pirate Riva (Patahsa Bay) as he falls foul of an Angolian crime lord – and simultaneously falls for the girlfriend of a local thug – Viva Riva! doesn’t shy away from portraying the gritty reality of Kinshasa. As a gangster looks around the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo and remarks “Your city is the worst shit pile I’ve ever seen”, it’s difficult to disagree. The sweaty seediness of the poverty-stricken settlement is brilliantly evoked, and as the characters grope their way through filthy streets, left blackened by electrical cuts, the hand-held camera-work adds to the grim setting.
But the cityscapes aren’t the only thing about Viva Riva! that feels seedy. Patasha Bay is an incredibly charismatic actor, but Riva – like most of the characters – is unapologetically misogynistic. Riva’s idea of courting the beautiful Nora (Manie Malone) is to stalk her and watch her urinate, while a beaming hotel concierge offers up prostitutes for men to abuse like Fawlty Towers’ Manuel would cheerfully offer room service.
Apart from rendering the film’s protagonists completely unlikeable, neither does this reflect well on the director. Djo Munga may be attempting to portray the cultural attitudes of this African state, but his lingering gaze on women’s bodies, use of sensual tribal music as abused women submit to the aggressive advances of criminal men and superfluous lesbian sex scenes make him seem like a complicit participant in this objectification, not a concerned observer.
This sex-fuelled machismo is merely one lazy aspect of what is ultimately a stereotype-laden film, which seems to be a derivative of every gangster film ever made – without the excitement or flow. Jumping from arrests to nightclub parties to tense stand-offs, Viva Riva! never finds the thrilling pace its exclamation point-punctuated title suggests. Instead, it becomes a series of intensely fragmented, badly scripted moments that will likely fail to draw audiences to the cinema – or visitors to Kinshasa.