We, Students!

Born in 1997 in Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rafiki Fariala arrived in the Central African Republic at a very young age, where his parents had sought refuge from the war. He began writing his own songs and, in 2013, recorded his very first track, ‘Pourquoi la guerre’, which proved a huge success.

He took his first steps in filmmaking in 2017 after being selected to take part in the documentary workshop run by Ateliers Varan in Bangui. As part of this, he directed his first short film, Mbi na Mo – You and Me. In 2022, Rafiki Fariala directed his first feature-length documentary, We, Students! (Nous, Étudiants !), which was screened at numerous festivals (including the LuxFilmFest) before being released in cinemas in 2023. The film made history by becoming the first Central African film to be screened at the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival).

This year, he returns with his first feature-length fiction film, Congo Boy. The film has received numerous awards, including the Best Actor Award in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Audience Award and the Best Performance Award at the Nouvelles Vagues Festival in Biarritz.