A tough, sturdy thriller set in Kinshasa suggests an impressive future for director Djo Munga

• Andrew Pulver
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 June 2011

1. Viva Riva!
2. Production year: 2010
3. Country: Rest of the world
4. Cert (UK): 15
5. Runtime: 96 mins
6. Directors: Djo Munga
7. Cast: Alex Herabo, Angelique Mbumb, Hoji Fortuna, Manie Malone, Marlene Longange, Patsha Bay
8. More on this film

Not too many films shot on the mean streets of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, make it to UK cinema screens, so curiosity value would make this worth a look, if nothing else. Writer-director Djo Munga has put together a tough, sturdy thriller, centred around a smalltime hustler called Riva (Patsha Bay), who shows up in the fuel-starved big city with a truckful of petrol he's liberated from his Angolan gangster employers. Said employers, led by the creepy bespectacled César (Hoji Fortuna) come looking for him, doling out eye-watering doses of brutality on the way. Riva, a sunny, self-confident sort, meanwhile, has his eye on Nora (Manie Malone), the expensive arm-candy of local hardnut Azor (Diplome Amekindra). With the best will in the world, you have to say that Munga's screenplay rarely rises above the conventional, but he keeps things motoring nicely, and there's the smell of authenticity about the ramshackle locations he's chosen. Munga, for sure, is a film-maker with a future.

arm-candy: atrakcyjna dziewczyna

bespectacled: noszący okulary

creepy: przerażający

dole out: oszczędnie wydzielać

dose: dawka

eye-watering: wzruszający

hardnut: twardziel

have one’s eye on somebody: mieć na kogoś oko; być kimś zainteresowanym

hustler: prostytutka

motor: toczyć się

ramshackle: w ruinie, rozpadający się

smalltime: bez znaczenia

sturdy: mocny

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