Maman, originated from a filmmaker’s attempt to tell his mother’s story — her move from her hometown of Likasi to Brussels at the age of seven, her longing for the sunsets of her childhood, her decision not to speak for a year, and her dream of becoming a photographer. The film ultimately took the form of a letter from a son to his mother, built around her voice reading the letter for the first time. For Niko Wei, the film grew out of the realisation that he didn’t so much want to capture her story as her voice. And that the film would serve as the fulfilment of a longstanding dream: that of a photographer whose very first image would be a portrait of his mother, champ contre champ with the image of a sunset evoking the indescribable feeling of loss and distance.
