Co-presented by
Storyline
Of Blood and Mud documents the everyday existence of the inhabitants of the coltan mining village of Numbi in the Congo DRC, revealing the hardships and trials of a story from which we must not look away.
Synopsis
Numbi, a small village hidden in the heart of the mountains of the Congo DRC. Here, with bare hands, miners extract coltan, which will find its way – legally or not – to our industrialized world. For decades, this grey gold, essential for the manufacture of modern technological devices, has been the source of conflicts and ruthless exploitation. By sharing their lives and intimacy, Of Blood and Mud documents the daily existence of the inhabitants of Numbi. Revealing their ordeals and their illusory hope of escaping their fate and one day benefiting from the riches of Congo.
Directed by
Jean-Gabriel Leynaud began his career in filmmaking at a very young age, pursuing a career as a camera assistant in fiction and as a cinematographer in documentaries. At 19, he made his first film, Place de la République, in which he followed two young homeless drug addicts for a year. Since then, he has directed around fifteen documentaries. He has also directed more than sixty documentaries for cinema, television, as well as fiction and commercials. His films have been selected for major festivals (Venice, Sundance, Tribeca, FIPA, etc.) and screened at the Cinémathèque Française and the ASC. He was nominated in 2025 for best documentary photography at the AFC awards.
