Hora Mama (Don’t Cry Mother)

Ndimbira Claudine | Rwanda | 2015 | 17 mins

Hora Mama (Don’t Cry Mother) Synopsis

When her mother became widowed during the Rwandan genocide, Mahoro dropped out of primary school and now prostitutes herself to provide for her own children. To cope with her dire circumstance, she compulsively cleans.

Hora Mama was an official selection of the 2016 WVN Online Film Festival.

About the Filmmaker

Ndimbira Claudine (Shenge Intare) is a young Rwandan female filmmaker residing in Kigali. At the age of 15, she began writing stories. In 2012, she began taking short courses in digital film making at the Kwetu Film Institute after high school. In March 2013, she participated in the animation workshop at the Luxor International Film Festival. In July 2013 she wrote and directed her first short film called “My mother, My hero” in a workshop called Girls Make Movies, during the Rwanda Film Festival.

From March-August 2014, as coordinator for the short film project “Shed Light on Your Rights,” she produced two fiction films, “Impuruza” and “She,” and directed another film called “SHE.” Ndimbira has participated in several workshops by the Europäisches Filmzentrum Babelsberg (EFB) in partnership with Kwetu Film Institute, where she directed her first short documentary Hora Mama.

More from the Filmmaker

Hora Mama was inspired by the complex reality for poor mothers. A mother can care so deeply about her daughter that she prostitutes herself. A mother can thrive in a life that she does not want her children to live. A mother can be broken but never cry. Ndimbira has developed a relationship with Mahoro, the mother in “Hora Mama,” and finds that the story of her struggle has forever affected her understanding of reality for women.

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