64th Viennale – Vienna International Film Festival
Austria, October 22 - November 3, 2026
Festival homepage
The jury
Giulio Zoppello (Italy), Calin Boto (Romania), Marietta Steinhart (Austria),
Awarded films
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Ben’Imana by
Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo,
(Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway, Côte d'Ivoire, 2026, 101 min)
Reports
Motivation:
Forgiveness is a big word. In Ben’Imana, it begins as a public gesture – and a deeply personal ordeal.
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo tells the story of Rwanda in 2012, of a society searching for paths towards justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Genocide against the Tutsi. This is more than a remarkable debut. Here, a young film culture, still in the process of finding its footing, discovers a distinctive voice.
With great sensitivity, Dusabejambo weaves together three generations of women, collective memory and family conflicts, without reducing her characters to positions or stories of victimhood. She tells her story from within Rwandan society, with a remarkable feel for nuance, physical presence and the significance of what remains unspoken. Her direction trusts in the power of encounters, of faces and of subtle shifts.
In short, Ben’Imana places its faith in the contradictions of life – and possesses the rare ability not merely to proclaim humanity, but to make it visible.
