GÄEL KAMILINDI
BIO
A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris in 2011, Gaël Kamilindi is an actor. Of Swiss nationality and Rwandan and Israeli origin, he has worked with various renowned directors such as Bob Wilson, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Denis Podalydès, Ivo Van Hove, and Thomas Ostermeier.
On both the small and big screen, he has collaborated with Mina Achache, Philippe Garrel, Éléonore Pourriat, Stéphane Ly-Cuong, Mélanie Laurent, and Catherine Corsini. Since February 2017, he has been a member of the Comédie- Française troupe. Didy, which he co-directed with François- Xavier Destors, is his directorial debut.
FILMOGRAPHY
Didy, 2024. Documentary.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Didy, my mother, died when I was five and a half. She was buried in Burundi, far from her native Rwanda. (…) At the age of seven, I arrived in Switzerland and grew up with my aunts. I left behind my country and the mourning of my mother. When I was 16, I realized that it was from these wounds and events that I drew my strength. Then, while trying to find the father who didn’t recognize me, I realized that I hadn’t been told everything about Didy. Driven by a desire to understand, to get closer to her, I set out to reconnect with my roots, my country and its culture. (…) Early on, I felt the need to record my aunts and Didy’s friends, to hear their stories marked by war, genocide and exile. I wanted to archive their words, to keep a trace. The lives and paths of these women lead me to Didy and the history of my country. (…)
Exile, uprooting, filiation and transmission are subjects that obsess a whole generation of Rwandans living abroad, especially those like me who are children of the «post-genocide» period.