Congo River, Beyond Darkness

Thierry Michel (born 13 October 1952, Charleroi, Belgium), the indefatigable globe trotter. Always anxious to find out about the wide world, the Belgian director has already explored, through documentary or fiction, Morocco and its people (Issue de secours 1987)), Brazilian favelas (Gosses de Rio (1990), the culture of Zaire (Zaïre, le cycle du serpent (1998)), a Guinean hospital (Donka radioscopie d’un hôpital africain (1996)) or the contadictions of Iranian society (Iran sous le voile des apparences (1996)). But Thierry Michel does not forget his native Belgium. Born in 1952 in Charleroi, in the heart of an industrial region nicknamed "the Black Country, the director made his first documentaries following the miners or the steelworkers among whom he had been raised. His first feature film was also well-rooted since it was a re-creation of the great insurrectional strike of 1960 (Hiver 60 (1983)). Thierry Michel also explored the inside of a Belgian prison in “Hôtel particulier”. But whether in his native Belgium or in a far country, this humanist is always on the lookout for what brings people closer together. Which makes him more than just a standard documentarist or fiction director. —IMDB