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Ben'Imana

Play trailer Poster for Ben'Imana 2026 1h 41m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 16 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Ratings
In 2012, eighteen years after the genocide against the Tutsi, a Rwandan village is still learning how to live with itself. Vénéranda has spent years helping survivors and the families of those responsible speak the words that were never said between them. However, forgiveness comes easier when it's someone else's story. When her own daughter's future becomes entangled with the past, Vénéranda is forced to find her own words at last. Spanning three generations of women, BEN'IMANA is an intimate portrait of inherited silence -- and the fragile question of whether people who have survived the unspeakable together can still build a life side by side.

Critics Reviews

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Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine Sep 12, 2026
2.5/4
Ben’Imana demands and earns the audience’s attention, and while it isn’t without flaws, a lack of self-awareness is certainly not among them. Go to Full Review Jessica Kiang Variety May 28, 2026
A deeply felt dispatch from the frontlines of a war that ended 18 years ago, but may never truly be over. Go to Full Review Josh Slater-Williams IndieWire May 28, 2026
B+
While hope on the horizon is presented, this rich, deeply moving drama doesn’t shy away from forgiveness being something that cannot be easily forced, even when the will may be there, however far buried. Go to Full Review Sarah Manvel Movies We Texted About Sep 21, 2026
The women in the support group have an extraordinary coping tactic...: they sing. The songs feel like lullabies instead of hymns, but they are definitely the songs of reassurance and consolation, the kind that calm the heart when it gets too overwhelmed. Go to Full Review Diane Carson AWFJ.org Jun 30, 2026
A
In 'Ben’Imana', Rwandan writer/director Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo integrates the personal with the political through reconciliation efforts in 2012 with hopes to heal the legacy of the Tutsi genocide. Go to Full Review Stephen A. Russell Orion's Shoulder (Substack) Jun 18, 2026
For all its darkness, there’s an effervescent luminosity to Dusabejambo’s insistence on hope. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Cast & Crew

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Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo

Director

Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi

Veneranda

Isabelle Kabano

Suzanne

Kesia Kelly Nishimwe

Tina

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo

Screenwriter

Delphine Agut

Screenwriter
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Ben'Imana

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 2012, eighteen years after the genocide against the Tutsi, a Rwandan village is still learning how to live with itself. Vénéranda has spent years helping survivors and the families of those responsible speak the words that were never said between them. However, forgiveness comes easier when it's someone else's story. When her own daughter's future becomes entangled with the past, Vénéranda is forced to find her own words at last. Spanning three generations of women, BEN'IMANA is an intimate portrait of inherited silence -- and the fragile question of whether people who have survived the unspeakable together can still build a life side by side.
Director
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Producer
Samantha Biffot, Marie Epiphanie Uwayezu, Pierre-Adrien Ceccaldi, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Screenwriter
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, Delphine Agut
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Kinyarwanda
Runtime
1h 41m
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