Viva Riva! is something of a rarity - a film from the Democratic Republic of Congo and it recently won many honors at the African equivalent of the Academy Awards.
It concerns Riva, a prodigal son who returns to his native Congo after 10 years of working for a gangster in neighboring Angola. In addition to any hard won wisdom and experience he also brings barrels and barrels of gasoline to Congo's petrol-starved capital, Kinshasa. Riva stashes the gas in a warehouse and then meets up with his old friend J.M. who has settled down in something akin to domestic bliss. Flush with cash, Riva brings his buddy out for a night on the town.
They come upon a large group of people dancing and Riva spies the sultry Nora, her sweat-covered midsection writhing to beat of the drums. Tired of village women with saggy breasts, he decides that he must have her. Although they do a little dirty dancing, Nora ultimately rejects Riva's advances which only heightens the thrill of the chase. Unfortunately she is a kept woman and she is kept by a local mobster named Azor.
While Riva pursues Nora, his old boss in Angola, Cesar, arrives on the scene to hunt down his former employee and the gasoline he stole. Cesar stands out with his white suit, white fedora, and scarf. He blackmails a local military commander by threatening to hurt her sister if she doesn't help him track Riva down.
Director Djo Tunda Wa Munga has created a very gritty genre picture here with the audience never left wanting for violence and sex. Despite being a bit player in the seedy underbelly of Kinshasa, Riva is a charismatic character and one has to admire the bravura in his single-minded pursuit of hedonism. But he is almost a one-note figure and the attempts to add more depth to him fail. The story notes that Riva had a brother but his death isn't elaborated upon until towards the end when Riva has it out with his parents. This scene feels like it comes out of nowhere since his brother's death isn't talked about much and the confrontation is the only sense we're given of how the loss has affected Riva. Along these same lines, J.M.'s family life basically bookends the film. We see his wife object to Riva taking him out at the beginning but we get nothing more until the end when he beats his wife. J.M. has been corrupted by the temptation of Riva's hedonistic lifestyle and of the chance to get his hands on the gasoline. But for the bulk of the film, J.M. is just there with Riva with his family seemingly gone AWOL. It would have been nice had these strands of story been given more screentime so that their ultimate resolutions didn't seem so isolated and unrelated to the rest of the events in the plot.
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