When Lia, played by Sonia Rolland, a professional basketball player of mixed Franco-Rwandan heritage, is asked to play for Rwanda at the African Championship, the invitation is about more than sport. It pulls her back to the country she left as a child because of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. That is the premise of Kwibuka, se souvenir, the second feature from Belgian-Rwandan director Jonas d’Adesky, which opens in French cinemas on November 4, distributed by Les Alchimistes. The film had its world premiere at the Festival du Film Francophone d’Angoulême in August 2025 and screened at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia that December. It premiered in Rwanda on July 22 at the 2026 Cine Junction in Kigali, and a preview screening followed in Paris on September 28. It was also selected for the National Competition at the Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF), held from September 4 to 12. ALSO READ: Rwandan film starring Sonia Rolland selected for Brussels film festival For d’Adesky, basketball was a way into the story, not a backdrop. He said the idea gained force when he met lead actress Sonia Rolland, who plays Lia. “I pitched her the project, and she told me it was almost her own story,” d’Adesky said. He said Rolland joined a basketball team after moving to France, where the sport helped her make friends and fit in. Rolland, who was born in Kigali and spent part of her childhood in Burundi before her family moved to France in the mid-1990s, played until she was 19, which he said gave her performance credibility on court. In the film, the national team gives Lia a reason to return. Once in Rwanda, she uses the opportunity to piece together her family history and reconnect with her father, whom she has not seen in years. He is played by Jean-Hugues Anglade. Joël Karekezi, one of the film’s producers, said basketball gives Lia a way back. “Basketball is one of the things that gives her the chance to come back and see how far Rwanda has come, and to play for it and make her contribution as a Rwandan woman,” he said. ALSO READ: How Karekezi’s film residency is inspiring Rwandans to tell their stories Karekezi also said the producers want Rwandans to see the film at home, but many cinema venues in the country are not operating. “We will think about a strategy for next year to show it again in different provinces, in open air,” he said. A release on video-on-demand platforms would follow the cinema run, he added. The film was shot in Rwanda, and its cast also includes Isabelle Kabano, Parfait Mugiraneza Ntambiyindekwe, Eugène Nkota and Jacques Bahige, among others. Barbara Burabyo worked on the project as assistant producer. “Even though there is some diaspora in the film, almost 90 percent of the technicians and the crew are Rwandan,” Karekezi said. D’Adesky, who grew up in Brussels with a father born in Rwanda, said the film is also about double identities. “What do we do with them? Do we hide them, or go and meet them and make them a richness?” he said. He said the genocide makes this harder for Rwandans abroad. “It is often difficult for the Rwandan diaspora to take that on again and return to their country. And yet I think it remains a richness,” he said. His aim, he said, was to “link the small intimate story with the big history.” Rolland, who has kept strong ties to Rwanda, described Lia as a character who “never gives up” but is also a wounded child trying to heal through her search for her family. Karekezi said he hopes the film reaches a wide audience. “The main thing is to have a large audience able to see works made in Rwanda, stories made by Rwandans and about Rwanda,” he said. Kwibuka is Kinyarwanda for “to remember.”
