Le Fardeau

In Bangui, Rodrigue and Reine are a couple very involved in the activities
of their church. But they live with a terrible secret: they are HIV positive
and carry it like a divine punishment.

Neither the religious fervour of Rodrigue and Reine nor their suffering need any emphasis, and in The Burden we find the same dryness as in Elvis Sabin Ngaïbino’s debut feature film, Makongo, selected at Cinéma du Réel in 2020. A resolute storyteller, the filmmaker sparingly conveys the shame surrounding HIV, when Reine throws the packets of antiretrovirals down the toilet so no one will discover them, and the depths of their distress when they can’t afford to buy the next box. His horizontal gaze is the precious gaze of a close friend who shares their secret and their faith. What is striking is the way in which the couple endures adversity. Since Rodrigue seems overwhelmed by an unbounded sadness, Reine has to fight more ardently: survival is at stake. Western medicine, bereft of empathy, co-exists alongside the quest for mystical healing. As their illness advances, Rodrigue and Reine want to believe that a miracle is possible. The filmmaker accompanies this quest, shows how religion gives structure to their life: it forces them to live in shame, but also gives them the strength to fight to extricate themselves from the shadows, even if this ultimately means contradicting the priests’ guilt-inducing words. If Rodrigue has been punished by God, doesn’t he now deserve mercy? As the film unfolds, it nurtures the conviction that the silence deserves to be broken—and thus the love story also becomes a story of friendship.

Olivia Cooper-Hadjian