Ben'Imana

Ben'Imana is the debut feature of Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, and a landmark for Rwandan cinema: the first film directed by a Rwandan filmmaker ever selected for the official selection at Cannes. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 79th festival in 2026 and won the Caméra d'Or, the prize awarded to the best first film across all sections. A Rwanda–France–Norway co-production, it was written by Dusabejambo with Delphine Agut.

Set in 2012, the film centres on Vénéranda, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, who works within the community-led justice and reconciliation processes that sought to rebuild the country. As pressures mount in that work, a crisis inside her own family forces her to test the limits of forgiveness and belief. Dusabejambo draws restrained, lived-in performances from a largely non-professional cast, and approaches an almost unbearable subject with patience rather than spectacle.

Critics received it as one of the genuine discoveries of the festival, and it holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes; MK2 took on international sales. By locating the aftermath of catastrophe in the texture of ordinary lives and choices, Ben'Imana announces a major new voice and extends the global conversation about how a society lives on after genocide.