THE TREE OF AUTHENTICITY
[L’ARBRE DE L’AUTHENTICITÉ]
Nestled in Africa’s largest rainforest lies one of the many graves of the West’s efforts to control nations and nature — one of the world’s largest tropical agricultural research centers. Located on the banks of the Congo River, the Yangambi INERA Research Station was a booming scientific center in its heyday. Today, it is an amalgam of jungle and ruin, where questions of knowledge, power over it and access to it linger. THE TREE OF AUTHENTICITY recounts the ecological destruction that began at the time of colonization through the voices of two scientists who worked at Yangambi between 1910 and 1950: Paul Panda Farnana and Abiron Beirnaert. Their stories embody the legacies of colonial modernity and trace the origins of today’s environmental injustice. (Note courtesy of Twenty Nine Studio.) Official Selection, 2025 Rotterdam International Film Festival. DIR/SCR Sammy Baloji; SCR Ellen Meiresonne, David Van Reybrouck, Thomas Hendricks; PROD Rosa Spaliviero. Belgium/Democratic Republic of Congo, 2025, color, 89 min. In French and Dutch with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Co-presented with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF)
Run Time: 89 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, March 22, 2026
Genre: Documentary
