Originally from Rwanda, Gaël Kamilindi studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris and has worked as an actor with theatre and film directors including Bob Wilson, Jean-Pierre Vincent and Mona Achache. He is also a member of the Comédie-Française troupe. He co-directed Didy, his first feature-length documentary, with François-Xavier Destors. The film was selected by numerous festivals and received the award for Best Documentary at both the Mashariki African Film Festival and the Brussels International Film Festival.
What was your starting point for „TAXI MOTO“?
The film started from absence. There was an earlier film — a love story between two men — that I was supposed to shoot, and that suddenly became impossible, and it became an obsession. So the starting point of TAXI MOTO was not “let’s make another film instead,” but : what remains of a film we are not allowed to make, and where does it continue to exist? In our bodies, our words, our memories, our desire?
Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Which one and why this one in particular?
I can’t really reveal my absolute favorite moment, because it would spoil the very end of the film, but I can say this: one of the moments I’m deeply attached to is when we encounter images from Dakan. Showing Camara’s film inside TAXI MOTO is not just a cinephile wink. It’s a way of acknowledging a lineage, of saying that queer African love stories have existed, they have been filmed, and they continue to resonate despite attempts to silence them.
What do you like about the short form?
The short form allows urgency. You don’t need to justify, explain, or make everything “complete”. You can stay close to a sensation, a wound, a question, and let the audience inhabit it. For a film like this, which is literally born from something interrupted, refused, the short form remains right. It allows to be a gesture, a flash of resistance rather than a resolved narrative.
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PRESS REVIEWS
„In TAXI MOTO begegnen sich nun eine zwischenmenschliche Begegnung, romantische Schemen und Metareflektionen über queeres Filmeschaffen, den Umgang mit Zensur, Repräsentation im Film. All das in ruhigen, warmen Bildern, ohne zu belehren und mit einer fantastischen Chemie zwischen seinen Darsteller*innen. „
Review by Riecks Filmkritiken
Berlinale Shorts 