Birds Are Singing in Kigali

Carmel International Competition

  • Archive - Festival 33
  • Director: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
  • Poland 2017
  • 113 minutes
  • Polish, English, Kinyarwanda
  • Subtitles in Hebrew

Anna, a Polish ornithologist, is in Africa in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. As both deal with the traumas they have witnessed, they must try and find some sort of redemption.

In writing the film, the filmmakers were inspired by their own time living in Africa. Krzysztof Krauze passed away mid-production and Joanna Kos-Krauze completed the film.

Filmography: Papusza (2013), Saviour Square (2006), My Nikifor (2004).


  • Director Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
  • Production Joanna Kos-Krauze
  • Script Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
  • Cinematography Krzysztof Ptak, Józefina Gocman, Wojciech Staroń
  • Editing Katarzyna Leśniak
  • Music Paweł Szymański
  • Festivals Karlovy Vary, Locarno
  • Actors Jowita Budnik, Eliane Umuhire, Witold Wieliński, Ciza Remy Muhirwa
  • Source Kosfilm, Warsaw